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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23694433">Of Sand And Desert Sun</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Triculeveckian/pseuds/Triculeveckian'>Triculeveckian</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:35:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>95,142</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23694433</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Triculeveckian/pseuds/Triculeveckian</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Copper's mother is tragically killed in a SandWing fight, will she find her own way, or will her time run out?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>n/a</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello everybody, just so that you know I have written out this entire story already--this way, I figure I'll be able to bring you all consistent updates. I will be uploading a chapter every week, most likely on Friday or Saturday. I hope you all enjoy.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The war was over.</p><p> </p><p>It had been two months since Copper and her mother had heard the news that Burn and Blister were dead, and that Queen Thorn was the new queen of the Sandwings. Her tribe, the SkyWings, no longer bowed down to another dragon that didn’t even care for them--Ruby was their queen now, after the Dragonets of Destiny killed Queen Scarlet. </p><p> </p><p>Not that it really mattered. Not to her.</p><p> </p><p>After all, queens meant nothing when you lived underground, far from any kingdom’s prying eyes. For Copper, however, her life was this or nothing--the SkyWings would kill her on sight if they ever found out about a freak like her in their midst. She’d heard about what had happened to Peril...and she was one of the lucky ones.</p><p> </p><p>Besides, Fly would always keep her safe. That’s what she’d been doing for Copper’s whole life; hiding her underground, dodging the other tribes and trading where she could for whatever she could get for herself and her daughter. And why, after all this time, should things change now? They’d just be like they’d always been; safe; secure; always the same.</p><p> </p><p>    Always.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>---</p><p> </p><p>    “Okay, so we have three jaguar skins, a basket of bananas, two baskets of mangoes, and a tapestry made by...what did you say that RainWing’s name was?” </p><p>Copper glanced up from the pile of stuff strewn over the cave floor and up at her mother, Fly. She was brooding over the acquired materials like a mother hen with her nest, counting the items over and over just to make sure that none of them had suddenly vanished within the past few seconds. Her forehead was scrunched up like she was trying to remember something, but it didn’t appear to be all that successful as she kept sighing and shaking her head, like every name that popped into her head wasn’t quite the right one. </p><p>“She said her name was Dragonfly,” Copper answered with a shrug. “Why?” </p><p>Fly snapped her talons and glanced at the tapestry again--it was of the mountains rather than the rainforest, surprisingly enough, but still beautiful. And while both Copper and Fly knew that the SandWings were fond of neither, it was possible they might like it anyways, especially Blaze if it ever got to her. Copper had heard from a few of the Outclaws that the SandWing princess liked tapestries, and had them strewn up all around her room now that she’d been moved to Queen Thorn’s castle--previously Burn’s stronghold--after the war. She might pay for this one. </p><p>“It’s very well-done,” Fly said quietly, studying the image. “How much did she want for it?”</p><p>Copper’s eyes rolled in the back of her head as she tried to remember, wings slanting sideways a bit and spreading slightly over the stone ground. “Oh, yeah,” she said after a moment, shaking out her scales and straightening again. “She really liked that silver chain that you got a while back, and said she’d make three tapestries for it because I guess she likes to do that, even though a few of the other RainWings made fun of her for it.” She shrugged and sat back again, brown-tinted copper scales glittering in the sun that shone through the cave entrance. </p><p>Copper and Fly's cave, while nothing grand, was plenty big enough to support the mother and growing daughter that lived inside--three SkyWings with their wings outstretched could not have touched both ends of the main cave, and two spacious sleeping caves branched off on either side for Fly and Copper to sleep in. They lived on the eastern side of the mountains, just south of Jade mountain where the cave’s entrance opened up to the rainforest. They had access to plenty of food and warmth this way, and the entrance was also angled so that plenty of sun could warm the dragons inside--a trait that sun-loving Copper especially enjoyed.</p><p>    After a bit of a pause Fly suddenly nodded, a bit distractedly. “Yes, I do remember that,” she muttered, clearly thinking about something that was pretty important by the way her talons were twitching. “So two more?”</p><p>“Yeah. I asked her if she could do one of the desert because the SandWings like those, but Dragonfly doesn’t really know what it looks like. She said she’d go through the tunnel and look at it, though, so I guess she's pretty interested.” Copper glanced back towards the tunnel that exited their cave and threaded through the mountain, muscles a bit tense in anticipation.</p><p>Today was the day when Fly’s “friends” from the Kingdom of Sand would be over for their weekly trade with Fly. Copper had gotten used to it by now, exchanging fruit for meat and upa few other things--Copper and especially Fly’s stomachs could not handle all-fruit diets--sometimes treasure, but the whole trade always made Copper nervous for one reason or another. After all, these dragons were SandWings, of all things. It was their fault that the war that'd just ended had even started in the first place as far as she was concerned, and those dragons could all keep their distance. Nobody could trust them, really. Why Fly even wanted to go near SandWings after all that had transpired was a bit beyond her understanding, but Copper never complained, given that her mother had already left everything in the Sky Kingdom simply for her sake. If she wanted to trade with those untrustworthy Outclaws, it was up to her mother, not her.</p><p>Fly shook out her wings, glanced over the baskets again, and sighed, talons still twitching and making funny scraping noises on the rock. “Alright. We might get a camel or two for this, which should be enough for the week. We don't need too much meat. Any scrolls or jewelry I should ask them to look for?” the SkyWing glanced up, meeting her daughter’s gaze. Copper loved her mother, adored her even, and she especially loved how Fly always took such attentive care of her every need, no matter what the cost was to herself. Despite this, however, Copper occasionally wondered if maybe Fly would be happier without her here in the first place. After all, it was her fault that Fly had been forced to leave the Sky Kingdom, surely she must have left some friends behind. Didn’t she miss them at all? Why hadn't any of them come to trade like the SandWings did?</p><p>After a bit of a hesitation, Copper just shook her head. “It’s fine, mother,” she said, repeating those same words she had always used when Fly wanted to do something special for her.  A misfit like herself couldn't afford to be a nuisance, after all, not that she'd ever want to be one anyways. “Thanks, though. Why don’t you get yourself something nice?”</p><p>Fly chuckled, shaking her head with a bit of an amused expression on her face. “Oh, you know I don’t need anything.” One of her talons automatically reached up to worry the gold chain around her neck, something Copper had noticed she always did when someone mentioned jewelry. “Of course--”</p><p>She was interrupted as a rush of wind exited the tunnel that came from the mountain and washed over the two dragons, tearing up Copper’s eyes before she finally looked away and lifted a wing to shield her face from the breeze. Fly did the same, glancing at her daughter from under her golden wing. “They’re here,” Copper muttered, voicing both her and her mother’s thoughts. Her tail twitched uncomfortably--she could already smell those SandWings, even though they were yet aways away down the tunnel. The scent that always accompanied the desert dragons, dusty and hot with some sort of plant-like smell that Copper had always assumed was cactus, was a familiar one, and she sneezed upon inhaling an unpleasant lungful of it.</p><p>Fly turned away from the wind, nodding, then nudged Copper towards the branch in their cave off to the side with her free wing. “Right,” she said, curling her tail around her talons as she sat down again. “Go ahead and go to your room, Copper.” Copper grumbled in reply, but obeyed, slowly rising to her talons and stalking off towards her den with her tail scraping over the rocks behind her. She’d always had to go to her den while her mother was trading with the SandWings--partly because Fly was worried that someone might try to hurt Copper, and partly because the SkyWing felt bad about it when her daughter had to endure other dragons’ stares and listen to them speculate on what exactly she <em> was. </em>  </p><p>“Cursed, that’s what I am,” Copper muttered to herself, stamping into her cave and swiping a mirror off of the shelf with an irritated growl. She stared at herself in the glass for a few moments, then set the object aside, barely holding back the desire to smash that horrible thing. </p><p>In most ways, Copper did seem like an ordinary SkyWing. Her wings were large and powerful like the rest of her tribe, and her snout was slender and full of bristling white teeth. She had a long and muscled tail that was perfect for flying and fighting, with a thin and bony build like her mother and strong legs that ended in wickedly-sharp claws. She could think fast and fly faster, faster than any other kind of dragon in Pyrrhia. </p><p>On the other talon, <em> mostly </em> like a SkyWing didn't mean <em> completely </em> like a SkyWing, and Copper was born with a few odd…differences from her tribe, to say the least. For one, there was the problem of her weird coloring. Her scales were the exact color of copper with bleached reddish-bronze scales on her underside--too light, not to mention strangely reflective, and her eyes were the color of blood--too dark. The spines on her back were too wide and met before reaching her scales, and her horns didn't curve enough according to almost every single trader that passed through. Then her talons…three moons Copper hated them.</p><p>Her talons were the worst, like some enormous slogan hanging from Copper’s shoulders that practically shouted ‘HEY LOOK AT ME, I’M A FREAK!’ Instead of five claws on her front talons, she only had four--something that she felt made her even more worthless, as if she wasn't horrible-looking enough already.</p><p>Why was she like this? Copper closed her eyes, letting out a huffy sigh. <em> “Oh, honey, don’t let it worry you too much.” </em> She remembered Fly’s answer perfectly, because as far as she knew her mother had given her the exact same answer every time she asked, and she’d asked that question quite a few times over the years. <em> “Your father and I made a few enemies in the Sky Kingdom many years ago after we were married there. One of those enemies was an animus dragon, and to get back at us from the crimes she thought we’d committed against her she placed a curse on your egg, one that would keep you from ever fitting in with the SkyWings.” </em> She’d sigh, but then she’d smile kindly at her daughter. “ <em> She just wanted us out of her way...our tribe does not take well to anyone that’s different. So we left--at least, we tried to. Precipice was captured before we made it here. He died trying to save you, Copper. Never forget that.” </em></p><p>How could she forget that, exactly? Pressing her mother further never produced anything more of a story either; Fly would only shake her head and lightly tell Copper not to worry about it because she was safe now and that was what mattered. <em> And that it’s what my father would have wanted, apparently. She says that a lot too. But why would he--they want a deformity? Would they have been happier if I’d just been left to die? </em></p><p>Copper’s peculiar appearance wasn’t exactly the most subtle. She had to be the least-camouflaged dragon in all of Pyrrhia thanks to her bright scales, which were colored in the exact same shade as her namesake. Not only that, but they were reflective to the point where it was almost impossible to stand in direct sunlight without blinding anyone who looked at her, and Copper had had to learn very quickly to either stick to the shade or curl her body up very tightly to minimize the reflection so that other dragons could even stand to look at her. Other dragons often described her as a SkyWing that looked as if she had been dropped into a vat of molten copper, or that someone had hammered real copper over each of her scales to make them shine so. There wasn't even a hint of the red or orange or pink colors that she would've hatched with if she'd just been <em> normal.  </em></p><p>“Not that any of it matters,” Copper muttered to herself. “Mother won't even tell me why an animus made me such a freak in the first place, to get rid of her.”</p><p> </p><p>Over in the main cave, Fly’s voice bounced around the walls.</p><p>“Beetle! Sandstone! I’m so glad you made it here safely!” she cried. Copper glanced back at the entrance to her sleeping cave, but stayed put. She wouldn’t dare disobey her mother by leaving her cave, even if she didn't agree on the whole idea of trading with those untrustworthy Outclaws. Besides, why go out there and face the stares and mutterings she’d always listened to before? It just wasn’t worth it.</p><p>To Copper, the worst part was when they tried to compare her to her mother. It was like they were peeling her scales off right in front of her, comparing the abomination that she was to the overwhelming normalcy of her mother. “Why does she look so weird?” they’d whisper to each other with shocked expressions. “Nothing like her mother, that one. She must really be cursed to look like that” or “What's wrong with her? Why doesn't she look more like Fly?” or “Boy, Fly must have really ticked off an animus for her daughter to end up like <em> that </em>.” Copper absolutely hated it.</p><p>Surprisingly enough, it was the RainWings who were actually the worst about this. They were the first to stare and the loudest to whisper when they saw her; it was like those dragons didn't even try and be polite about what they were thinking like the other tribes did. They just said everything out loud, and <em> very </em> loud. Not good when your cave was practically next door to their tribe.</p><p>Unfortunately, however, the ones that judged her were always right about one thing: Copper’s mother certainly looked nothing like she did.</p><p>Fly, unlike Copper, was beautiful, and a perfect picture of what a SkyWing ought to be as far as Copper was concerned. Her scales were the color of rubies and matched perfectly with her molten-gold underscales and wing membranes, and her fire-red eyes were nothing like her daughter’s deep red irises. Her proportions were perfect and her movements were graceful, voice silky-smooth and ever-confident unlike Copper’s stuttering and spluttering whenever she tried to speak with anyone that wasn’t her mother. Fly’s beauty was unmatched by any SkyWing that Copper had ever seen before, not that she’d seen many, and the dragonet had quite convinced herself that Fly was the most beautiful dragon in all of the Sky Kingdom, maybe even in all of Pyrrhia.</p><p>“We brought you two camels; it was all we were able to get this week.” Copper’s head jerked up as Beetle, the larger of the SandWings whom Copper had learned to recognize by voice alone, spoke up. She was one of what Copper often referred to as Fly's “regulars,” or dragons that came the most often to trade, and she sounded almost ashamed as she spoke. Copper thought that she could hear Beetle's wings shifting in slight agitation. “I’m sorry Fly; Sandstone wasn’t able to acquire any jewelry either I’m afraid. Trading has been tougher than usual this last week.” There was a bit of a rustle as Fly nodded, and for a moment Copper felt a surge of curiosity slithering up her spine at what exactly was going on. She had never been much of a rule-breaker, mostly because Fly generally had good reasons for her rules, but Copper sometimes found loopholes for herself or bent the rules, just a little. This, she decided, would be one of those times.</p><p>One of Cooper's favored loopholes was a small hole just around the corner of the entrance to her cave, close to the floor where it was harder to spot. The hole was about the size of Copper's snout and slightly ovular, not to mention perfect for spying on trades with. Nobody ever noticed the dark red eyes staring at them from her cave by the stone floor, and technically Copper wasn't breaking Fly’s orders by leaving her cave.</p><p>Creeping forward with practiced stealth, Copper crouched by the hole and peered out at the two SandWings. Her hole, thankfully, was positioned in the shade, but Copper kept her wings carefully tucked away along her sides anyway for a little extra precaution.</p><p>One of the Sandwings was much smaller than the other, about Copper’s age despite being much bigger than she was. He was hiding beneath the wing of of a SandWing that was nearly twice the size of Fly, sandy wings tucked neatly around his body and his black eyes shining with anxiety. Despite the huge size difference between the two dragons, it seemed more like Beetle was trying to appear as if she wasn’t a threat, keeping her tail tucked by her talons and her wings scrunched by her shoulders in order to make herself appear as small as possible to Fly. She was almost exactly the color of sand and wore no jewelry, recognizable mostly by the large scar that was carved into her face just below her right eye. Looked like an IceWing wound by how deep it was, but it had long-ago healed into darker scar tissue and broken scales. There were a few other scars scattered by her flanks and chest, but the one on her face was the most noticeable. Copper remembered Beetle from a few previous trades, and she had seen the SandWing once or twice herself. She was one of her mother's more reliable traders as far as she knew.</p><p>Fly, on the other talon, looked like something bejeweled, a ruby next to a plain rock. She was tiny, beautiful, barely scarred at all, and seemed entirely comfortable around the SandWings with her massive wings relaxed at her sides and a kind look upon her face. Sandstone huddled beneath his mother’s wing and kept glancing nervously at the SkyWing, but Fly only smiled at him in return, trying to put him at ease and show him that he was safe here. Copper knew he was, especially with her mother around it would be near-impossible to get hurt. </p><p>Sandstone's scales were slightly darker than his mother’s but with a slightly reddish tone to them, and he only had one scar about halfway down his tail that sliced through the scales and ended in an almost ovular shape, like a claw had gotten stuck in his flesh there and then been pulled forcibly free. The wound appeared to be somewhat recent as well, and Sandstone kept scratching it while Fly looked over what they’d brought behind them--two camel carcasses that were pretty fresh, just like Beetle had promised. The SandWing in turn looked at the baskets and skins, nodding a bit.</p><p>“The tapestry is beautiful,” Beetle murmured, looking over it with her ebony eyes shining. “Did you teach Copper how to weave, or was it a RainWing that did this?” All three heads glanced involuntarily back at her sleeping cave, and Copper quickly ducked away from the hole so that they wouldn’t see her. Thankfully none of them seemed to notice her looking hole, because soon enough Fly’s voice resumed the conversation. Copper warily moved back to peep through the hole again.</p><p>“It was a RainWing that did it for us,” She confirmed, smiling again at the tapestry. Fly especially seemed to be quite pleased about it, ruffling her wings and holding her head up so that she looked very much like a proud rooster while Sandstone looked admiringly at the artwork.</p><p>“A RainWing? I didn’t know that they knew how to create art like that.” Beetle sounded almost awed by the prospect. </p><p>“Neither did I.” There was a slight rustling sound as Fly shrugged again. “You have any news from the Den for me?” </p><p>“No,” Beetle answered quickly, shaking her head. “The IceWings have caused some trouble on the borders again, though it’s nothing the Outclaws or Thorn can’t handle if need be. The general thinks that they may be after our treasure for some reason.” Sandstone shuddered, and Fly’s expression hardened slightly at the word “general.” Copper frowned upon seeing her mother's reaction, curious as to what had caused it. <em> The general? Haven't they mentioned him before? It seems like they have. A lot. Why doesn't Mother like him? Did he do something to her? Have they fought before? </em> Copper looked at her mother, though she already knew that none of Fly's scars were caused by a SandWing in any obvious way.</p><p>Sandstone glanced back at her sleeping cave again from under his mother's wing, but this time Copper didn’t have enough time to jump out of the way before his eyes somehow found her blood-red ones, pressed up against the hole and sparking with uncertainty. He shifted a little, but his expression became more of curiosity as he tilted his head to the side, then smiled a tiny bit. Copper blinked, shifting back a little, then found herself smiling back at him. Even though the war was over, there were still some tensions among the tribes after so much hardwired animosity towards one another for all those long eighteen years of war. It it was nice to see a dragon as calm as Sandstone was around the SkyWings, especially a weirdo like her. <em> Maybe his mom worked for Burn before becoming an Outclaw? That would make us allies anyways, which makes sense. Except he’s an Outlcaw and I’m a freak. Hmmmm… </em></p><p>Sandstone looked for a moment as if he was going to try and say something, but stopped as a strange wind rushed through the cavern from the tunnel. His wings fluttered, and he pressed them to his sides with a confused expression. Fly frowned, glancing at Beetle. Copper breathed in an all-too familiar scent. <em> SandWings. More of them? </em></p><p>“Did they follow you?” Fly's face quickly shifted into a look of alarm as she instinctively inched away from the rush of wind.</p><p>Beetle's eyes were wide. “I thought we'd lost them,” she whispered. “We have to get out of here. Now.”</p><p>Copper pulled her head back stepped forwards, out of her sleeping cave.  “Mom--” she started to say. Another, sharper rush of wind interrupted her, blowing her words away. She began heading for her mother, who was pushing Beetle towards the outer ledge at the cave entrance and telling her something that Copper couldn't hear. All three of the dragons’ eyes were wide with fear.</p><p>Something was horribly wrong. Why were more dragons coming this way? Was it the general? But Fly seemed afraid, not angry. Copper put up a wing to block the wind and struggled towards her mother.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, two SandWings hurtled into the cave, spears in hand.</p><p>“HOW DARE YOU TRY AND CHEAT THE OUTCLAWS, YOU WRETCHED SKYWING!!” one roared as Fly spread her wings to hide Beetle and Sandstone, whipping around and facing them with a growl in her throat. The two SandWings landed and advanced toward Fly menacingly, venomous tails curled over their backs and teeth bared. Both of them had spears. Copper froze halfway between her cave and her mother, blood running colder than ice. Somehow she couldn't move forward. Somehow the guards hadn't spotted her yet, and all their attention remained focused on Copper’s very angry mother.</p><p>“I have cheated no one,” Fly hissed at the SandWings, her voice not far from a snarl. Her claws twitched in anger, yet there was something in her eyes that showed fear as well. Copper had never seen her mother like this before; Fly who was always controlled and serene. Whatever was happening, it wasn't good. Were they going to be imprisoned?</p><p>“The Outclaws don't agree,” the other SandWing snapped, waving his spear. “And we're going to kill everyone in this cave, right now, to teach other liars and cheats like you a lesson.” </p><p>
  <em> Definitely not imprisoned, then. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>“I think you won't.”</p><p>Fly suddenly turned and shoved Beetle off the edge and out of the cave in a single, swift motion. “GET OUT OF HERE!” she bellowed, wings flapping madly so that the entire cave turned into a whirlwind of turbulence and Copper, finally discovering that her legs were not in fact blocks of lead, couldn't see anything at all as she stumbled towards where she thought she'd seen her mother. Where had the SandWings gone? She couldn't see them but she could hear Beetle, hovering outside and just out of sight. There was a pause, and then suddenly she grabbed Sandstone and and burst out into the rainforest below. Just like Fly, Beetle would do anything to protect her son. </p><p><em> But what about us? </em> One of the SandWings tried to follow after Beetle’s rapidly disappearing form, but Fly shot up to stop him before he could make it out. She smacked into his neck, raking the underside of his snout and throat with her claws while he shrieked and jabbed his spear blindly at his attacker. The second SandWing prowled under the first two, waiting to step in.</p><p>The fight didn’t last long, and everything happened so fast. She was too late. Fly’s talons caught the face of the SandWing on the ground as the fight drew lower and lower, and he howled as a thin line of blood trickled down his face. The other one managed to free himself and whipped his tail around, and Fly let out an agonized shriek as it smashed into her wing and hurled her forcefully backwards. A horrible silence cracked through the air as her mother slammed into the cave wall, then slowly crumpled to the ground. The SkyWing didn't move.</p><p><em>No! </em>Copper’s heart felt like it had stopped. <em>No no no no no! No! </em><b><em>No!</em></b></p><p>The world turned red, and before she even realized what was happening Copper hurled herself into the Sandwing that was still hovering over Fly's body, claws shaking with rage and horror. “GET AWAY FROM MY MOTHER!!” she shrieked, slamming her tail into the SandWing’s face with all the force she could muster. Being rather small meant that there was a lot less power behind her attack, but her wings were still huge and the attempt still seemed to affect her opponent nonetheless. He swung to the side with a shout, dazed, and the other bolted after her to defend his partner.</p><p>Copper whirled around, jaws opening, and released a burst of fire directly into the second SandWing’s face, her heart pounding so furiously that she thought it would shatter right there in her chest. “Where did--” The guard’s snarl was cut off as the her fire caught his snout, rolling up to scatter over his entire face. His scales burst into flames, and the SandWing fell to the ground with an earth-shaking shriek of pain. He writhed on the stone for a moment, clawing at his face with smoke curling off his scales, convulsed once, then suddenly went still. </p><p>The first SandWing, having recovered from Copper’s first attack, swung around the cave in what almost seemed to be surprise coupled with his fury. Staring off to Copper’s left just over her shoulder, he stamped the ground and thrashed his tail in anger. “I’ll find you!” he screamed, his furious words bouncing around the cavern like fireworks. “And when I find you, SkyWing, I swear I’ll kill you!” He suddenly spread his wings and darted out the tunnel that went through the mountain, leaving Copper dazed behind him. She stared at the second SandWing, now dead, then at the still form of her mother.</p><p>“Fly…” Copper crawled over to her mother’s unmoving body, biting down on her tongue so hard she tasted blood. Fly’s wing was sprawled to the side at a horrible angle, and the scales around were the SandWing barb had hit were black from the poison.</p><p> </p><p>Her mother was dead. Nobody could survive the venom of a SandWing.</p><p>Six years protecting Copper from the SkyWings, and in the end it was a SandWing that had killed Fly. Copper would never see that kind smile again, or laugh at one of Fly's terrible jokes, or practice flying with her through the mountains or hunt with her or play with her before they went to bed. Never again would Copper hear her mother's rich laugh or her silky voice, or listen to her tell stories about the war. Fly was gone.</p><p>Copper felt completely numb with grief, too shocked and shaken to even cry over her death. All she could do was stare at Fly’s body, her wings shaking like leaves in a hurricane.</p><p>There was something wrong with what had happened, and it wasn't just that a dragon had died and that she had killed another dragon for the first time in her life.</p><p>She’d been standing right in front of the first SandWing. And yet Copper had listened to him screaming something about how he'd find her, even though she was right there in plain view. Why hadn't he just killed her? Copper was no RainWing. In fact, the SkyWing dragonet was probably the least-camouflaged dragon in all of Pyrrhia.</p><p> </p><p>So how had he not seen her?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had been impossible to sleep. Copper didn’t know what to do, but there was no way that she could just stay here and wait for that SandWing to come back with reinforcements. She’d seen the look of fury on his face--that wasn’t the kind of dragon that made threats for no reason. She had no doubt that he would fight her to the death if they ever crossed paths again. </p><p>And that wasn’t the only threat on her life. If any SandWing or Outclaw ever found the body of the second guard, Copper would be as good as dead, so she’d spent a sleepless night trying to bury it out of sight in the Rainforest below. The dirt was easy enough to dig up, now that it was summer, but the SandWing’s body was huge and even in the light of the three moons it took hours before his still-smoking, tan-colored corpse would fit in the hole she’d excavated. Finally, however, the morbid job was complete, and after the mound was covered in leaves and a few branches to hide the fresh earth Copper had spent whatever remained of the night trying--and failing--to fall asleep.</p><p>Even when she did finally succumb to exhaustion hours after all light was gone from the sky, Copper’s dreamed were plagued with horrible nightmares. Over and over and over and over she watched her mother die while she sat there, frozen and always a second too late to save Fly from death. Where she remembered her wings being fast it suddenly felt like trying to fly through mud, and they moved so slow, too slow. Her talons felt like lead weights. She couldn’t breathe. Her body shivered uncontrollably as dream after dream rolled through her mind.</p><p>“Gah!”</p><p>Copper shot upright, nearly falling off the shelf that she didn’t really remember climbing to the night before, wings spreading themselves wide and flapping in a panicked staccato of beats for a few seconds before the dragonet managed to right herself. Looking around, she realized that she was in her cave, not reliving that fight again, and relaxed ever so slightly.<em> It’s okay. It’s over. It’s over. I’m alive. But not Fly… </em></p><p>Unlike the SandWing, she had not been able to bring herself to bury Fly the night before, even though that evidence in itself could condemn her just as much as the SandWing. She simply couldn’t. That was her mother, not some nameless attacker, and the whole idea of burying her...Just <em> no. </em> It was horrible enough that one dragon had died, but this? It was like admitting defeat, burying her, like rubbing salt in an open wound. She couldn’t admit that Fly was dead, just like that. <em> Even if she is. </em>The thought stung.</p><p>Copper didn’t bother to eat anything even though she hadn’t touched any food the entire day before, tail twitching in agitation as she nervously edged into her mother’s cave and looked over the interior, then sprung back out as if the floor had turned to lava, blinking hard. A tear slid down her cheek, and she forced herself to look away at the wall. How was it Fly was really gone, how was it that all those scrolls and the paint on the walls and the furs belonged to someone…<em> No, I won’t think about it. I will not think about it. I will not think about it. </em></p><p>Copper practically flew back to her own room, skidding across the floor and throwing herself into the jaguar skins in the corner that made up her bed. “NO!” she suddenly screamed, reaching out with her claws shredding the skins to pieces before she even realized what had happened and hurling the bits at the walls with all her might. “Why?!” she roared at them. “Why did my mother have to die?! Why couldn't I have just died?! She was trying to SAVE me! It’s NOT! HER! FAULT!!!” Flutters of amber and ebony fur slid sadly to the floor where they stilled into limp heaps of decimated fluff, unanswering. Another tear slid down Copper’s face, and suddenly she rushed out of her room too, only stopping her mad dash once she made it to the entrance of the tunnel that opened up like a black mouth into the mountain. There, she skidding to a stop right in front of the opening, claws scraping the rocks and her chest heaving.</p><p>The only place where Copper might have any hope of survival was the Scorpion Den. Even though she already knew this, she’d spent sleepless hours trying to think of somewhere, <em> anywhere </em> else that she could go instead. And she could come up with nothing, not one place that she’d have any chance of survival aside from... <em> there </em>. If Fly had friends there, then perhaps some of them might be willing to help her--she really had nothing else. Not a deformity like her. Anywhere, any other location in all of Pyrrhia, and Copper would almost certainly die. Any dragon from the Sky Kingdom would kill her on-sight for the freak and monster that she was, and the other tribes might kill her for the same reason or just because or throw her into some dungeon for who-knew what reason. And even if she didn’t rot in a dungeon cell, trying to live by herself could mean starvation or freezing to death or sickness or murder by other hostile lone dragons or whatever else out there could kill a dragonet like her.</p><p>The SandWings, ironically, had become Copper’s only hope of survival. </p><p>It took awhile for Copper to work up the courage to go down that tunnel that went through the mountain--she’d never even stepped inside the thing before, and it looked about as unappealing as ever now. Unlike the rest of their cave, the entrance to the tunnel was a dark, claustrophobic space with a low roof and sides that seemed to press down on either side of you even from the outside. There was barely enough room for one to fly in that horrid corridor, and whoever flew in there probably bumped into stuff all the time in the dark. There wasn’t even a glimmer of light inside, not a single torch from within either, as if it were an enormous dragon mouth and throat sucking in the light from outside.</p><p>     All Copper’s hunting had been done outside in the Rainforest where food was plentiful and somewhat easy to find, and while she was just as curious as any dragonet there had never been a good reason or need to go down that tunnel. It was an awful sort of hallway--who’d want to cram themselves into that dark cramped space for no reason, even a curious dragonet? It was a nasty, dirty, and foreboding place as far as Copper had ever been concerned.</p><p><em> But it’s not “no reason” now, featherbrain, </em> she told herself, staring into the darkness. <em> You have to go in there now, or die. </em> How she wished she could see in the dark like a SeaWing--Copper couldn’t see a single thing after the first few feet, and everything was just worse that way when you couldn’t see where you were going. She sighed, but eventually Copper took a deep breath and stepped into the dark corridor. Immediately she pulled her talon back, but then her eyes narrowed and she practically stomped it down in the same place again.</p><p><em> I will not chicken out. </em> </p><p> </p><p>One step. </p><p> </p><p>Another step. </p><p> </p><p>Another step. </p><p> </p><p>She already couldn’t see, but Copper forced her shaky legs to move on anyways. She started out walking rather than flying down the tunnel, but the very thought of attackers on the outside waiting for her kept her wings pressed firmly to her sides. It was eerily quiet in there, the silence only punctuated by water dripping off stalactites here and there as the entrance light slowly dissipated into darkness behind her. </p><p>She couldn’t see anything now. <em> I have to keep going. </em> Copper gritted her teeth as she tripped over a stalagmite, smacking her head against the cave wall before landing in a heap a little further on. Three moons, how she wanted to go back, but she couldn’t.</p><p>If Copper tried to take the other route to the Scorpion Den by flying over the mountains, she’d be an easy snack for any wandering patrol or aggressive dragon out there, not to mention the storms known to inhabit Jade Mountain. Within hours, she’d probably be a dragon pancake on the side of the rocks. If she tried to get around by going down the south side, Copper would probably get swept out to sea and drown or get lost and starve. Going up the northside would only put her through the Sky, Mud, and Ice Kingdoms--an idea that Copper also half-jokingly referred to as suicide. No way was that going to happen.</p><p>Her wings shivered as she pictured her mother’s body still lying back in the cavern. The very thought of it almost made Copper lose it, turn around, and rush back to her cave. Surely when she got back she would realize that everything was a dream and Fly was really okay, and nobody had died and the SandWings had never attacked them in the first place. Surely if she went back, Copper would find that it had all just been a terrible nightmare. Nothing this awful could be real.</p><p><em> Stop it, </em> she scolded herself with a growl that bounced off the close walls. <em> Don’t even think like that. </em>Copper knew that she would never see Fly again, no matter the horrible optimistic hope that still lingered somewhere in the back of her thoughts.</p><p><em> I’m going to get out for Fly. She would have wanted me to do this. </em> She had to keep going, for Fly’s sake, and Copper knew that somehow she had to avenge her death if she could. <em> Yes, </em> she decided, the voice in her head firm. <em> I have to avenge my mother. That SandWing can't get away for this. I have to find him and make him pay for what he did or die trying. </em>The thought made her very steps ring with determination as she continued, her resolve stronger than ever now.</p><p>With every step she took, it was one memory that kept Copper going--the wicked look on the SandWing’s face as he drove his barbed tail into Fly’s wing. He was enormous, the guard was, with glittering, snake-like eyes and a tan crest, pale yellow scales and a smattering of russet speckles on the insides of his wings. There was an ugly scar on his scales that nearly divided his chest in two from the top to the bottom, and another one that slashed down his tail. That was how Copper would recognize him, she decided. She was going to kill him for what he had done, no matter what it took.</p><p>These thoughts circled around and around and around Copper’s head as she continued, tripping over stones and scraping her wings against the walls and whacking her tail into stalagmites with every other step. Every time she fell, she’d stubbornly get up and keep going, face hard with anger.</p><p>After what felt like years of walking, Copper noticed something ahead--a pinpoint of light way off in the distance. She stopped, staring at it and blinking hard. Was she imaging things now, after all that walking? Were those glowworms further on down the tunnel?</p><p>
  <em> Or is that the exit? </em>
</p><p>Without a second thought Copper began running, her talons pounding over the stone so loudly that it sounded like thunder in her ears. The light looked so close, but after a few minutes she was forced to slow down again to a walk, her chest heaving. <em> What’s going on!? </em> The light certainly didn’t look any bigger. In fact, it looked almost smaller, teasing her efforts whenever she ventured closer. Copper stopped, thinking <em> This tunnel goes through an entire mountain and ends north of the Scorpion Den, right? This last part probably just straightened out, so you can see the light from far away, </em>she realized. That exit--and her freedom--was still a forever away.</p><p>
  <em> But I’ll get there, no matter what it takes. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>---</p><p>   </p><p>The sun was setting by the time Copper finally reached the end of the tunnel, and one of the moons was already halfway in the sky. It cast a soft glow around her talons as she stepped out to the end of the ledge, breathing deeply and flexing her wings out and in. Her talons ached a little, but it was nothing that a night’s sleep couldn’t fix. This place was nothing like she’d expected, though, and when she finally looked out at the land below her Copper had to bite back a gasp.</p><p>The tunnel opened up into a massive forest far down below the ledge she’d stepped onto, bristling with pine trees that seemed to stretch on into eternity. Copper reared up on her hind legs, narrowing her eyes. If she squinted, she thought that she could see the sagebrush and sand of the desert over the horizon. To the left--was that the sparkling of the ocean? This new universe left Copper speechless, and she stared at it for a long while without a word.</p><p>“Wow,” she said quietly to herself after a moment. “Wow.” The world had never seemed so huge before--their entrance to the Rainforest was just over the trees themselves, and it was often too risky for Copper to fly too high lest someone spot her. The NightWings were what had made this especially dangerous when they moved into the Rainforest, and Copper had not flown the open skies for a long, long time.</p><p>Finally, however, Copper began the long descent down towards the forest below. The trees down there didn’t seem any bigger than shrubs from the ledge at the end of the tunnel, but as she spiraled closer Copper was amazed at how massive the pines were, and how different they were compared to the Rainforest. These trees were spiny and sloping like tall triangles, and among them were a few leafier trees with odd whitish trunks and light green leaves. </p><p>It was oddly dry and cold here compared to the rainforest, and a biting wind dragged at her tail as she tried to find a place to sleep for the night. She couldn't see the edge of the desert anymore, but Copper guessed that the Scorpion Den was probably about a day's journey from where she was now. If she remembered correctly from the scrolls they'd gotten ahold of under the mountain, then if she flew due west from the forest she should run right into the Scorpion Den.</p><p>Copper circled through the pines for a while, and quickly realized that if she flew through the trees instead of over them it was a bit warmer without the chilly wind. Unfortunately however, “warmer” didn't necessarily mean “warm,” and Copper had to clench her jaws to keep her teeth from chattering and alerting the entire forest to the dragon in its vicinity. Her wingtips and tail tip started to feel numb, and Copper occasionally spit out bits of flame to warm herself whenever she didn't think the action would set something on fire. </p><p>
  <em> Three moons, I can't wait to get to the desert. At least there it’s warm! </em>
</p><p>It took quite a long while, but finally Copper managed to hunt down a small rodent of sorts--one she'd never seen before with a bushy tail--and settled into one of the leafy trees to eat it. Copper had accidentally used a bit too much fire in taking down her meal so the little thing was a charred mess, but she didn't really have the heart to try and hunt down anything else. Right now, all she wanted was to sleep. Maybe things would look better tomorrow. </p><p>Finishing off the rodent, Copper swallowed and leaned out a bit, staring up into the sky. All three moons were high overhead now, and she decided not to waste any more time looking for a place to sleep. Copper settled herself against the trunk, gripping the rough bark in her talons and trying to keep her ridiculously reflective scales as out-of-the-way as possible so that nobody would come after her and kill her in her sleep. She was a light sleeper and hoped that she'd awaken if anything happened, but after yesterday it felt like it would be impossible to ever be able to relax ever again.</p><p><em>Tomorrow,</em> Copper kept telling herself as her eyes fluttered slowly shut.<em> Tomorrow I'll make it to the Scorpion Den. Beetle will help me. She'll know what to do.</em></p><p>The Scorpion Den, and hopefully, some answers.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When Copper woke up the next morning the sun was already high in the sky, with speckles of light filtering through the tree leaves and reflecting off of her shining scales. It was still a bit cooler than Copper liked, but it was much warmer than last night and the sun felt delightful on her scales as she slithered out of her hiding place and spread her wings to catch the rays. Waves of heat spilled over her wings and warmed Copper’s entire body to what felt like a rather delightful temperature, and a smile slowly spread over her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Closing her eyes, Copper sighed, allowing herself to pretend for just a moment that everything was as it had been--normal, safe, and secure. For a moment, her problems faded, and she felt like she could just stand there all day with her wings outstretched, soaking up the sun. Maybe the Scorpion Den could wait after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a few minutes, however, Copper's eyes snapped open again. Not only did she dare not stay any longer with her mirror-like scales in plain view, but she realized with a bit of a start how incredibly thirsty she was. Copper hadn't noticed it at first, but now her throat felt parched and stung when she dragged her tongue against the roof of her mouth to investigate why it felt so weirdly dry. At first she wondered if releasing so much fire the day before was to blame, but after a moment she decided that running through the mountain all day yesterday with nothing to drink might have been the real culprit. Copper was used to having plenty of water from the small stream outside their cave, and without that water nearby she felt all dried up like a kindling stick. Her scales hadn't fared much better, and they felt horribly rough and dry as she crawled to the edge of the branch she'd perched on and scanned the area around her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nothing. Copper flicked an ear and leaned forward, listening carefully. Her ears strained to catch even a scrap of sound, and after a few minutes she thought she heard it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Remembering the ledge she'd stood on the night before, Copper tried to picture what she was hearing now. </span>
  <em>
    <span>A stream. Moving water. Fast. The land there is sloped. Clear. To the left?</span>
  </em>
  <span> She shook her head; the sound was too faint to know for sure. </span>
  <em>
    <span>It's as good a guess as any I think. Kind of wish I knew where I was going though.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She sighed, but after a bit of hesitation Copper finally straightened, spread her wings, and took off towards the left and what she hoped would be something to drink. Her copper scales flashed intermittently in the sun's golden glare, so she had to be careful to stick close to the trees where her reflective form would be harder to spot. She really wanted to fly up higher and higher until she could actually see the stream, but on top of finding a drink she was quite likely to find herself an assassin or something as well. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Three moons, I wish my scales wouldn’t be so reflective!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper had been flying for about half an hour when she realized that she'd gone the wrong way entirely. When she stopped and alighted on a branch to try and hear the stream again, no sounds would reach her but the birds and her own breath rushing past her ears. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Great, I’ve gone the wrong way. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Grumbling, she glanced back the way she’d come, her heart sinking. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Now I have to go all the way back again. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Growling, she clawed at the bark, then stopped. </span>
  <em>
    <span>By the moons, does everything have to be this hard?! Maybe I shouldn’t have detoured after all. I bet they have at least </span>
  </em>
  <span>some </span>
  <em>
    <span>water in the Scorpion Den.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>After a moment Copper forced herself to calm down, flicking her wings out and slowly lifting into the air. For one heart-stopping moment she couldn’t recognize anything and thought she was lost, but after a brief pause she recognized the line of trees that she’d been previously flying through. Copper spun towards it, unsteadily heading back the way she’d come, sticking to the shade as much as she dared and occasionally flying up a little to try and recognize a landmark or two to lead the way. The sun beat down hard on her dry scales, and her thirst grew with every minute of flying until it was nearly all she could think about with every beat of her wings. Copper tried to stop herself, as she knew that thinking about it would only make things worse, but she couldn’t help herself. Lakes, rivers, waterfalls, streams, creeks, oceans, and estuaries crossed over her vision, and she imagined herself swimming in the water and dunking herself in it and…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It seemed to take an eternity of flying, but after nearly an hour of flapping around, hoping for a landmark here and there, and half-praying for a thunderstorm, Copper </span>
  <em>
    <span>finally</span>
  </em>
  <span> found what she'd been looking for. The sound grew louder this time as she advanced towards it, until minutes later she reached a small clearing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Running right through the center of the forest was a big, clear, bubbling stream, just like she remembered seeing the night before. Her talons twitched, and Copper hardly contained a whoop of excitement as she rushed up to the edge and thrust her head into the water without even really pausing to land properly. Her chest smacked into the loosely pebbled earth and Copper nearly fell right into the water, but she managed to regain her balance in the nick of time and settled for gulping down as much liquid as possible before she drowned herself under the water. She opened one eye and noticed a minnow swimming past her nose, staring at it for a moment before she opened the other eye and snapped her jaws around it. She wasn’t sure she liked how it tasted and quickly backed up out of the water, spitting the liquid out between her teeth and crunching down on the little fish. It tasted weird, kind of stringy with an odd aftertaste, and Copper spit it out after a moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Blech,” she muttered to herself, shaking her head and getting herself another drink. “Gross.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The stream was really, </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> cold, but Copper had been so thirsty that she didn't care or even notice until she stuck her head in a second time. A few seconds later, she yanked it out, shaking her head hard and flinging the water away from her. </span>
  <em>
    <span>My brain feels like ice,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought with a wince, running her tongue over the roof of her mouth. All that flying around felt so worth it now, though, now that she had access to so much water that--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, what are you doing here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tone was a curious one, but Copper whipped around with a yelp, throwing up her wings to shield her face from whatever patrol or assassin or guard that was surely going to attack her. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Will they interrogate me? Eat me? Will they chain me up? Am I about to die?</span>
  </em>
  <span> There was a dreadful pause, Copper’s wings shaking as she waited. A blurry form stood on the other side of her translucent, nearly transparent wings, though she couldn’t tell if the dragon was mad or not. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you going to kill me?” Copper finally worked up the courage to ask after several tense moments, unable to hide the tremor in her voice but trying to sound unafraid despite that. She slowly lowered her wing and peeked out, a little confused as to why she hadn’t been attacked or questioned yet. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Is it a patrol? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Her wing jerked back up to cover her face again as the other dragon spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?! Kill you, are you serious?!” The other voice seemed surprised, even distressed, not angry or fierce at all. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What is going on? </span>
  </em>
  <span> Slowly, she lowered her wing again, and as the other dragon came into view Copper was surprised to see a white face staring back at her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was an IceWing.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span> The two dragons stared at each other for several minutes, and each seemed to be trying to figure out what to say and what exactly the other dragon was doing here in the forest in the first place. The SkyWing’s territory and the Sky Kingdom was far north in the mountains above the forest, and the IceWings and their Ice Kingdom was on the very northernmost tip of the continent, a long, </span>
  <em>
    <span>long </span>
  </em>
  <span>ways away from here. It was clear that neither IceWing nor SkyWing belonged here, so the pause was a rather awkward one and seemed to last for an eternity. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a few minutes, Copper finally found her voice and managed to speak up. “So…You’re an IceWing…” she said slowly, tilting her head to the side. She only knew what they looked like from scrolls; she'd never seen a real one before and a part of her wondered if they were all as small as this one. “I thought you guys lived way up north? What are you doing down here?” </span>
</p><p><span>The IceWing stared at her. He looked like he was perhaps a half year younger than Copper, about the same size as she was with pale blue scales that were studded with silver around the edges and eyes the color of glacier ice. He had a small nick on the end of his snout, accentuated by the extremely nervous expression on his face and darting eyes. He looked at Copper, then down, shifting his talons fearfully. </span><em><span>Aren't</span></em> <em><span>IceWings supposed to be all full of themselves and scary? Is he going to try and run away before I can talk to him? Should I follow if he does go? </span></em><span>Copper exhaled slowly, settling down on the piney earth. </span><em><span>No, that would be a bad idea. What if he has friends and they ambush me? I’d freeze to death before we even got out of the desert.</span></em></p><p>
  <span>After a moment that felt like an hour, the little IceWing heaved a sigh. “I...uh…yeah, that's where I'm from.” He spoke so softly that Copper had to lean forward to hear him, and his words had a strange accent to them that she'd never heard before. Her eyes sparked with interest, wings twitching slightly. So here was someone from another tribe…and he wasn't even a little bit mean despite all that she'd heard. He didn’t even seem like he was suspicious of her, and if anything he seemed to be more scared of what she might do than anything. Copper studied him for a moment, noticing how he stared at her scales, but that was better than what she usually had to endure so she didn’t complain. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look, I don't want to kill anyone,” the IceWing suddenly blurted, glancing at her before drawing back as if a dragonbite viper had just slithered out of the bushes after him. Copper blinked, then sat back a little more, scrunching her wings back and curling her tail around her talons like she'd seen Beetle do to show she wasn't a threat. Maybe he thought she was mad at him, or didn’t like him or something. Maybe this would help.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It's okay, neither do I,” she said, speaking quietly like the IceWing had so as not to scare the skittish little dragonet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at her, then nodded a tiny bit, wings shuffling nervously. He glanced back at the stream where Copper had just been a few moments ago, then at the sky, then at her again. “Did you run away because of that too?” He asked, seeming to calm down and relax a bit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Run away?” Copper echoed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The IceWing nodded. “Yeah,” he answered hesitantly, staring nervously at the ground. He seemed to be about to say something, then stopped himself. The dragonet looked at her. “They wanted me to be a soldier, but I'm…I'm too scared,” he whispered suddenly, speaking so quickly that Copper barely heard him. “I...I-I don’t like blood...And I don't want to hurt anybody! I mean, why would I?” He stabbed at the dirt with his razor-sharp claws, drawing a dark line in it. “Dad says I’ll be stuck in the Seventh Circle forever,” he muttered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper was silent for a moment. Didn't she want to hurt somebody? Didn’t she want to kill the SandWing that had killed her mother? Didn’t she want to avenge Fly’s death? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Do I?</span>
  </em>
  <span> That SandWing that had killed her mother, surely he deserved to be hurt, even killed for what he'd done. She owed it to Fly...didn’t she? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t I?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Could Copper really ever kill another dragon? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Well no, could I really kill another dragon </span>
  </em>
  <span>again</span>
  <em>
    <span>? I’ve already done it,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she corrected herself with a twinge of guilt. Copper had never really wanted to hurt anybody before, but when faced with murderous attackers what else could she have done? It had all happened so fast, there wasn’t enough time to think anything through. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>But what if I had thought things through? Would anybody have had to die? Could I have saved my mother? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper sniffed hard, wiping her eyes furiously so that the IceWing wouldn’t see her cry. </span>
  <em>
    <span>And what if it wouldn’t have mattered?</span>
  </em>
  <span> the other part of her argued. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What if instead of saving anyone, I would have just died? I had to kill him, didn’t I?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper drew in a deep breath. “Yeah…” she answered quietly. “I’m sorry about what happened to you...But...but that's not why I left.” She noticed the IceWing staring at her scales, and drew her wings even tighter around her body. “I've never been to the Sky Kingdom, actually. Because of...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because…” Clearly the little IceWing didn't want to say it out loud, forcing himself to look away when Copper glanced over at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, because I'm different.” Copper nodded a little, and the other dragonet gave her a sympathetic look. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I'm sorry,” he said, glancing away. “I shouldn't have asked.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, it's alright.” Copper shrugged, trying to appear casual. “I mean, it is pretty obvious, so no use hiding it, right?” </span>
  <em>
    <span>What a funny little IceWing...</span>
  </em>
  <span>She scrutinized him for a moment, recalling her scrolls again. They had always painted the IceWings as cultured and superior to everyone else, dragons that were perpetually condescending and haughty to everyone but another IceWing. </span>
  <em>
    <span>So why is he so different? Is it a trick? Is he really a spy, looking for information?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper glanced over at where the dragonet was staring at his talons and muttering to himself, his body shaking. </span>
  <em>
    <span>No, that doesn’t make any sense. He’s actually scared, and too young to be a spy, isn’t he? Weird.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The IceWing looked up at her after a long pause. “Well...I...I guess…” he answered after a moment, swallowing hard. “I think you look cool though.” He smiled a little, a sort of crooked grin that slanted up the right side of his face. “No pun intended.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper stared at him, shocked. “Really?” she asked. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Definitely not a spy,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought. She tried not to sound too incredulous, but that was next to impossible. Nobody had ever before said that Copper’s scales were “cool” or “nice” before. Most everyone just thought she was weird, or some kind of freak or a monster. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other dragonet nodded, still grinning. “Yeah,” he answered, tail twitching. “I mean, what's wrong with not looking like everyone else?” He shook his head, seeming much more relaxed than he had a few minutes ago. “Normality is overrated, I think. I'm Polar, by the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper grinned. “I'm Copper,” she told him. “Cous, y'know…” she spread her wings a little, showing him the copper scales in between the pale membranes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar gaped at her. “Wow,” he said after a moment, awe in his voice as his wings shifted back and he stared at her brilliant scales. The silence was only broken by the creek next to the two of them until he spoke again. “That's awesome. Like, I wish I had scales like that. Because it would just be great. I love how they're so shiny.”  Polar gave her another toothy smile, then looked away as a darker blush of blue appeared in his cheeks. She liked him, Copper decided. He seemed so nice, and was probably the first dragon aside from her mother to have anything positive to say about her, the weird SkyWing dragonet with the funny scales and talons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks,” she said, folding her wings back. It felt really nice to have someone around that didn’t treat her like a freak, and for a moment she wished that Fly could be here to see this.</span>
  <em>
    <span> I bet she’d have liked Polar; they’re a lot like each other. He probably tells cheesy jokes like her, too.</span>
  </em>
  <span> After a moment of hesitation, Copper shook away the tingling nostalgia and spoke up again. “So...Polar, where are you going, exactly? I mean, where are you running away to?” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Is he going to the Outclaws too?</span>
  </em>
  <span> she wondered. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe he could come with me. It'd be nice if I didn't have to go alone. Maybe he knows something about them that I don’t.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I don't really know, actually,” Polar admitted, looking a bit embarrassed. Then his face brightened. “Maybe I could come with you? I mean, unless you're going to the Ice Kingdom, because they'd probably kill me for running away, but anywhere else and I bet I could come.” He looked hopefully up at her, his talons twitching and a hesitant smile on his face. She was really starting to like Polar’s crooked grin--it helped him look a bit less nervous, somehow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ignoring that thought Copper shrugged, still trying to appear more nonchalant. “I'm going to the Outclaws,” she told him simply, wanting to sound like she knew what she was talking about. What would Polar think if she told him that she didn’t know anything about this place at all? Another thought struck her. “But…” she added after a moment, frowning, “they’re in the desert, and it’s really hot there. Don't you guys not like the heat?” On the one talon, Copper would hate to go alone, but on the other talon she knew that she’d feel awful if she dragged Polar to the Scorpion Den if he was just going to be miserable in the heat. He didn’t deserve that, she thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Heat? Oh yeah, hmm…” Polar scratched his head, thinking. “I guess I didn't think about that. But there's water there, right? Water's cold. I bet I could just stay by it if they'd let me, then it would be okay. Think they'd let me? Maybe they wouldn’t let me.” His tail slid into the stream as he thought, and Copper could tell that the IceWing liked how cool the water was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have no idea,” she said, shaking her wings out. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Might as well tell him everything...</span>
  </em>
  <span>She glanced over at him. “I've never actually been there before.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>I could probably beat him in a fight if I really had to, if he’s really a spy. I bet I could out-fly him too.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“You haven't?” Polar nearly fell over, he seemed so shocked, and quickly spread his wings to regain his balance before he toppled over completely. The other dragonet’s face was twisted into an awful look of worry, and Copper’s brow furrowed in confusion. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What’s wrong? What does he know about the Outclaws that I don’t?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Her body tensed. Polar stared at her. “Then...then why are you going?” He finally spluttered, batting his wings nervously with his tail flashing back and forth behind him. “Don't they kill dragons and stuff like that? What if they hurt us or kill us or throw us in prison or something?” </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Do they? What if they do? The scrolls never said much about them. I only know from Fly...</span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper thought for a moment, shifting from talon to talon uncomfortably. After a moment, she stood, wandering along the side of the stream while Polar jumped to follow her. She was a little surprised that he was, but said nothing. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I didn’t really think about that. I didn’t think about any of this at all, really. Isn’t it my only option? What if I could go back to the Ice Kingdom with Polar? </span>
  </em>
  <span>She glanced at the IceWing and immediately tossed the idea aside. </span>
  <em>
    <span>No, I’d freeze to death. And even if I didn’t, they’d kill me and Polar because he’s a runaway and I’m a monster.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, Copper slowed down again, glancing at the stream that ran alongside them. She wished she could be as free as the water in that creek, with no worries or regrets or problems ahead of her. The stream didn’t look weird, after all. Nobody would ever think that a silly little creek was a monster. “I...I don't know,” Copper answered after a long pause, her voice much fainter than before. She could feel her anxiety seeping through as her nonchalance faded, despite how much Copper tried to squash those nasty emotions down. Polar sighed heavily, and she quickly tried to cheer him up. “My mom though,” she added, “Fly knew some of them. I thought maybe we could try and find them. They probably wouldn’t kill us, right? Not if I’m friends with some of them?” Polar only seemed a tiny bit comforted by that statement, but nodded ever-so slightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re a SkyWing, though,” he said, pointing a talon at Copper. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Even if I'm a weird one.</span>
  </em>
  <span> “And I mean, if you lived way back there,” he gestured with his wing to where Copper had come from, dark blue eyes narrowed slightly. “How does your mom know a bunch of SandWings?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper blinked, frowning a little. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Good question. Why does she know a bunch of them? The war didn't end that long ago. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She glanced back at the mountains where she'd come from. “Not sure,” she said after a moment, then shrugged. “But she does. And they were really nice, so I think they'd help me if I found them. I mean, it’s not like there are very many better options, are there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay…” Polar didn't sound terribly convinced. “Shouldn't your mom be the one talking to them then? I mean, if you didn't run away…” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper winced, stepping back as if she’d been struck with her wings drooping at her sides and her head lowering to where her snout nearly brushed the forest floor. A tear threatened in the corner of her eye as she remember seeing her mother's body, and she turned away from Polar quickly so that he couldn't see her face, rubbing her eyes hard with the backs of her talons. She couldn’t let the other dragonet see her cry. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Behind her, Polar’s voice sounded guilty and shocked. “Oh my gosh. I mean, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I had no idea…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper just shook her head, wiping her face even harder. “It's not your fault,” she answered quietly, curling her tail around her talons and hugging her wings close. “But my mom…She died two days ago and I never knew my dad and I don't have any brothers or sisters, so these SandWings are all I have if I can find them.” The words came out in a rush and she sniffed, then looked away, closing her eyes tight with her talon clutching her snout. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I won’t let him see me cry.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>When she opened her eyes again, a chill shivered up Copper’s spine as she realized that Polar had shifted to sit next to her, and hesitantly held a wing around her as if he was a bit afraid to touch her. Copper looked up at him and gave him a tiny smile, glad for his support, which seemed to be all the encouragement Polar needed. His wing relaxed and rested on Copper’s shoulder, and she sighed and leaned into him for a moment. His scales were cool, but it sort of felt nice in the sun’s heat where it filtered through the trees to shine on them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks,” Copper finally spoke, straightening herself a bit as Polar did the same and relaxed his wings back at his sides.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No problem,” the other dragonet answered, tail twitching as he looked up at the blue sky overhead. “So…next stop, the Scorpion Den.” That crooked grin lit up his face again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper nodded, spreading her wings and slowly rising into the sky. “To the Scorpion Den!” She cried. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar giggled, then leaped into the air as well, turning to quickly follow follow after her. “To the Scorpion Den!” he echoed with a laugh.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And they were off.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Copper had long known from her scrolls that SkyWings were the fastest of all the dragons on Pyrrhia due to their massive wings, of which she was no exception, but not until she tried flying with a dragon from a different tribe did Copper realize </span>
  <em>
    <span>how </span>
  </em>
  <span>much faster they were. Zipping through the air, Polar seemed to tire out pretty quickly, and after only an hour of flying the IceWing had fallen way behind her. Slowing down, Copper dropped back so that she was next to Polar and gave him a confused look. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You alright, Polar?” She asked, flicking him with her tail. The IceWing dragonet looked up, gasping for breath. His silver wings sagged tiredly on either side of his body, and his forked dark blue tongue hung from his mouth as he struggled to breathe. Copper slowed a little more, worry etched into her face, and after a few more minutes of gliding Polar finally seemed able to get enough air in to answer her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really...fast!” he coughed in between gulps of air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper stared at him. “I am?” She questioned him, a bit bewildered. Fly had always been so much faster than she was, as Copper was only now full grown and her mother had had much more practice than she back in the war. Back then, Copper usually could do nothing but follow as fast as she knew how and try not to show how tired she was, but even then Fly often had to slow down for her. It was something that the Copper hated almost as much as her funny talons; nothing felt worse than being a burden to her mother when they were just trying to get something done. All that trailing behind Fly on the mountain made it hard to believe that she might actually be faster than another dragon, even an IceWing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar nodded, wings sagging even further down as his forked tongue flickered in and out of his mouth. “Really hard...to keep...up!” he gasped, shaking his head. “Never knew...you could be...so fast!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A bit of guilt lodged in Copper’s gut, though at the same time she felt some pride sinking into her mind as well--it felt good to know that she could do something right as a SkyWing after all. At the same time though, she felt pretty bad about dragging Polar along so fast. He hadn’t even complained about it, which surprised her, and even now was grinning a little as he glided slowly after her. Copper had been so excited and nervous about getting to the Scorpion Den that she hadn’t really thought about how she might be a lot faster than Polar was, and then didn’t even notice it when he got tired. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oops. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She sighed. </span>
  <em>
    <span>By all the moons, I have to learn to listen better if this isn’t going to end in disaster.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper looked away from Polar, a sheepish expression on her face. “Sorry about that, Polar,” she said, slowing down as much as she could for him. “Do you want to rest for a little bit?”</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Polar nodded, nearly collapsing into the tree that Copper picked as she landed next to him. “Thanks,” he panted, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. She could see in the guilty look on his face that he probably felt bad about slowing her down, so Copper tried to encourage him instead like she sometimes wished her mother would have done.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s alright, Polar,” she told him, settling down onto the branch and moving as close to the trunk as she could. “It’s my fault, not yours. I should have paid attention to how fast I was going. Besides, it’s probably better if it takes a little longer anyways, don’t you think? Then we can plan and stuff, and we’ll be safer that way.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The IceWing’s face seemed to brighten a little, but he didn’t say anything, too focused on breathing to say much at the moment. His forked tongue slipped in and out of his mouth as he gripped the branch in his serrated talons and wrapped his tail loosely around the bark, sighing heavily and then quickly inhaling again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two dragonets rested for a little while, Copper not even breathing hard and Polar gasping like a fish out of water on the branch before the IceWing seemed to relax again. Several minutes after that Polar seemed to discover that he could talk again. He stretched his long silver body out along a pine limb and shook out his wings, then yawned happily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Much better,” he said with a grin, glancing back at Copper who was scrunched up in the shade of the pine tree right next to the trunk. His eyes narrowed slightly in confusion, and soon he shifted to sit upright again. “What’re you doing over there?” Polar asked, examining a chipped claw on his right talon and setting it down again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper spread her bright wings helplessly. “If you could find me so easily, who’s to say that we won’t be spotted by a SandWing patrol now? I mean, we’re getting close to the desert now; I can’t get us caught just because of my stupid scales.” She shook her head, slumping against the trunk with a sigh. Even though she loved being in the sunlight, she was sort of hoping to sneak into the Scorpion Den if they could and get help that way, and the more she thought about it, the more Copper realized how impossible that would be for her and Polar to do in daylight. Even hiding in the shade felt risky with how reflective her scales were.“I honestly didn’t think about that before,” she muttered with a shake of her head, inwardly cursing her own idiocy in not thinking things through. “We’re lucky that we haven’t been caught already, though. I think we might have to wait until nightfall if we don’t want to get in trouble. It just doesn’t seem like a good idea to go barging in there if we don’t know what we’re doing or what anyone else is doing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar seemed relieved, but quickly seemed to try and hide it with a sigh and his crooked grin. “Don’t worry Copper,” he said quietly after a moment, slipping back under the cover of the branches as well. “We’ll get there soon. Though…” he gave his white, pale blue-rimmed wings a suspicious look. “I should probably hide too, don’t you think? Darn ‘ol white scales can’t be that camouflaged down here in the forest.” He chuckled to himself, and Copper found herself grinning as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was pretty sure that Polar knew as well as she did that his un-reflective scales probably wouldn’t be anywhere near as dangerous in the sun as Copper’s would be, but neither said anything about it as the IceWing plopped down on the branch next to Copper, relaxed, and started humming a song that she’d never heard before. The melody was plain and simple, but nice, and Copper’s ears flicked as the sounds filtered through the air. Polar hummed the song once, then tried again, this time adding words. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“The dragonets are coming…”</span>
  </em>
  <span>  The IceWing dragonet’s voice was soft and light, like moonbeams, and Copper stilled herself in order to catch Polar’s every word. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“They’re coming to save the day…”</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Though she didn’t know the words Copper tried humming as well, adding her rich alto to Polar’s light tenor. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“They’re going to fight, for they know what’s right…” </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A pause. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“The dragonets…”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Polar suddenly stopped, turned, and met Copper’s eye, wings shifting a little to help with his balance while his talons gripped the branch tightly. A chilly breeze swooped through just then and it took him a second to gain his balance, but when he did he leaned back against the trunk like Copper was before settling down again. Copper stared at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar cracked a grin. “Hooray,” he whispered. Even the tree seemed to freeze as the dragonet’s words drifted off into the sky. Something clicked in Copper’s mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Dragonets of Destiny,” she said. It was a question, sort of, but Copper didn’t phrase it like one, her head cocked to one side. Why was he singing about them now? Wasn’t the war over? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe because they still inspire dragons, even today,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought to herself. Polar nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They did it, too. They saved us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper had heard from the SandWings’ visits about what had happened in Burn’s stronghold. She knew that Queen Thorn was now in control of the SandWings after the deaths of Burn and Blister, and she’d also heard reports about the trouble in the Sky and Sea Kingdoms, trouble supposedly caused by the Dragonets of Destiny. Unfortunately however, Copper had never really been able to work out what was truth and what was exaggeration from these reports alone, so the past few months had been tense. “So...what happened?” she asked finally, leaning back against the trunk and yawning. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was incredible, I heard.” Polar’s eyes were bright as he spoke, and for the next hour the little IceWing dragonet recounted to Copper what had happened based on stories he’d overheard from returning IceWing patrols, occasionally waving his talons for emphasis and nearly falling out of the tree three times when his tail whipped this way or that when he got really excited. Copper herself listened with rapt attention, and was quite surprised at how things ended, not to mention how they started. It didn’t seem possible that a few dragonets could cause so much trouble--and end so much of it at the same time. Killing Queen Scarlet, destroying the SeaWings’ Summer Palace, then ending the war? It was simply amazing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>How could a little dragon do so much? How had five little dragonets even managed to survive with everyone that hated them? How had they gotten out of the SkyWing palace, much less wrestled all three of the SandWing sisters to Burn’s stronghold in the first place? And how in the world could they possibly have ended the 18-year long war with their own talons? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Because they’re the Dragonets of Destiny,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she answered herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>It’s what they were born to do--end the war in one way or another. They had to do it. The NightWings are never wrong. </span>
  </em>
  <span>This answer satisfied her, though she still had a few questions edging around her mind as she thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, so you mean that Blister killed Burn by tricking her with a box of dragonbite vipers? Yikes.” Copper shuddered as she thought of that horrid reptile--the only known snake that could kill a dragon. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Wait, don’t they live in the desert too? I wonder how the Outclaws avoid them.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar’s wings shivered, and he nodded, eyes wide. “I know, awful isn’t it? And then how Blister exploded when she tried to take the Eye of the Onyx from Thorn? Ugh…” He shook his scales as if to brush away any black dust that might had suddenly appeared. “My dad was there,” he whispered. “It was crazy, he said! She grabbed it and then POOF!” He flapped his wings and let out an indignant squawk as he nearly fell out of the tree for the fourth time. Copper giggled, smacking him with the tip of her wing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Careful!” she laughed. “Don’t fall, that’d hurt.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A dry, hot wind whipped through the trees just then, and both dragonets glanced upward to see that the sun was just beginning to set way off in the west, illuminating the desert beyond where the two had hidden themselves. Polar seemed to like the idea of things getting cooler, but Copper quickly realized that she had another sleepless night ahead of her if she didn't find a way to keep herself warm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Think we could start a fire at all?” she asked, spreading her wings and hopping down to the ground with practiced agility. “Or maybe…” she glanced up through the thick canopy. “Well...I dunno. Think they’d see us?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar followed Copper’s gaze, staring up at the growing darkness for a few moments before he also slid down the trunk to meet her at the bottom. From there, he glanced up again, squinted, then shrugged. “Nah, I think we’ll be fine,” he answered. “The trees aren’t as big as back there, but I don’t think the SandWings even patrol out this far in the first place, especially if they’re from the Scorpion Den. I mean, what would they be afraid of? A fire shouldn't be too hard to hide, anyways, especially if we keep it small, and they won’t see the smoke in the dark.” </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Good point.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Well, it was a lot of good points, actually. She nodded. “It’s a plan then,” Copper decided with a chuckle. Turning, she began trotting through the trees and attempting to locate a few branches in the dying light that she could set on fire without sending the entire forest up in flames--something that would probably be wise to avoid if they wanted to remain as hidden as possible. She and Polar managed to get a few dead branches before everything became too dark to see, and they arranged them in the middle of a dirt-filled clearing before Copper set them on fire with a blast of flames from her jaws. The logs caught immediately, and Polar backed away slightly while she spread her wings to catch the heat. Waves of warmth slid up and wrapped around her scales, and Copper noticed that the IceWing kept himself a safe distance away from the fire even as she scooted closer to the flames. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Feel better?” Polar asked, ears flicking towards the crackling and snapping of the fire though he kept his wings and tail carefully wrapped around himself. Copper nodded, turning her body and holding her tail close to the soothing heat while Polar warily watched the flames leap and dance from several feet away. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Three moons it feels like it's been </span>
  </em>
  <span>forever </span>
  <em>
    <span>since I felt so warm, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought with a sigh. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Why didn’t I think of a fire last night?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Way better,” she answered with a chuckle, settling down by the warming dirt at the fire’s edge and fiddling with the copper bracelet that was wrapped around her right talon. It was the exact same color as she was, and fit perfectly around the Copper’s wrist as she twisted it around and around the scales there. She had never taken it off for as long as she could remember, and when she glanced up Copper saw that Polar was staring at it intently. When he noticed her looking at him the IceWing quickly looked away, shuffling his wings awkwardly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a nice bracelet,” Polar finally said after what felt like an hour of tense silence, gesturing to it with a small movement from his talon. He looked like he was going to ask something, then suddenly stopped, shying away from the fire as well and staring at the ground between his talons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, it’s from my mother,” Copper answered what she guessed Polar’s unasked question was with a sigh, resting her head on her talons and staring at the copper surface for a moment before looking at Polar again. He seemed surprised, then shook his head with a snort. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you read my mind?” he asked suddenly. Copper swung her head around to stare at him, immediately narrowing her eyes in an attempt to detect even the smallest hint of amusement in Polar’s face. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He must be joking around, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought at first, but the IceWing’s face remained serious, even worried somehow. His tail twitched, eyes remaining locked on the dirt right in front of him. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He looks...scared. But why? He doesn’t...does he? Does he really think that I could...?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Her jaw almost dropped as the realization sunk in. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Nope. He totally means it. He thinks I can hear his thoughts. </span>
  </em>
  <span>At first she felt a little angered that Polar would think such a thing of her, though the more she thought of it, the more ludicrous the idea sounded to her.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Me? Read minds? Little old me? That’s… </span>
  </em>
  <span>She could feel the corners of her mouth turning up even though she tried to stop them. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That’s hilarious, actually. I wonder what mother would have thought about that? ‘Oh, three moons no! Hearing everyone’s thoughts. Plech. How annoying!’</span>
  </em>
  <span> Her smile grew, and after a moment Copper smacked her tail onto the earth with a chuckle imagining the look of Fly’s face, shaking her head back and forth and trying to keep the rest of her laughter locked up inside her chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wish!” she answered finally, laughter edging her voice. Her chest started hurt from holding in laughter, and she giggled again, still shaking her head. “Man, that would be helpful, wouldn't it? But seriously, ick. No way. Read minds? Yuck. What made you think I could read minds, huh?” Copper’s scales twitched and she sighed, resting her head on her talons again as she remembered the bracelet. Polar stared at her for a moment with a suspicious look on his face, talons shifting nervously, then shrugged and suddenly seemed to relax again as well. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guess not,” he huffed after a moment. “There’s no way you wouldn't have reacted to that.” The other dragonet sighed, then grinned a tiny bit. “You really had me nervous for a minute though. Like, what if you could read my mind? Like a NightWing! If you had magic powers or something that made you do that, that would be </span>
  <em>
    <span>so </span>
  </em>
  <span>weird. I mean, I wouldn’t even have to talk to you. You’d just know it all already, and I could just sit here and stare at you and we’d have a whole conversation.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper chuckled. “I kind of wish I could read minds sometimes, but you’re really easy to read.” Polar’s eyes widened at this, reflecting off the light of the fire. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Not what I meant.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper slapped her forehead with her palm. “No, I mean, I can’t read your mind,” she said quickly, “but like, your expressions. How you move and look at me, it’s kinda easy to know what you’re thinking because it all just kinda comes out in your expressions. Fly, my mother, always had this sort of blank look on her face--you could never tell what she was thinking, you know?” This information seemed to satisfy him, and the other dragonet he nodded slowly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” he answered after a moment. “That makes sense, I guess. My dad, Iceberg, he’s a lot like how you said Fly was. He wanted me to be like that too and hide my feelings from everyone, but it feels so awful trying to do that. I mean, it’s like squishing your face into a mold that doesn’t fit, you know? I don’t even care if it makes me ‘stronger’ or whatever, I hate it.” Polar stuck his tongue out and scrunched up his face so that his eyes looked like they were way too big for his head, then made a funny growling sound in the back of his throat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper barked a laugh that rang clear through the treetops, scaring off a murder of crows in the process and coughing out a spurt of fire that narrowly missed the top of Polar’s head. The other dragonet dropped to the ground as the flames shot over his head, then glanced up with wide eyes. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oops.</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Whoah. Sorry, Polar,” she said, ducking her head in apology as the IceWing straightened himself again. “Didn’t mean to do that. But...but about what you said, I honestly don’t get the point of it either.” She giggled as she thought of the face Polar had made again, then waved a talon and shook her head a bit as if to disperse the thought from her mind. “I mean, it’s like lying with your face, if you think about it, and that’s just weird. Besides, it’s kind of nice, not being around a dragon that’s not constantly hiding their feelings. I don’t have to guess what you’re thinking, y’know?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar nodded thoughtfully, shaking out his wings. “That’s true,” he mused, then shrugged again. “Oh well, I like it either way. It’s nice to not have to hide behind a mask. Let them see what I think, is what I say!” He shook his talon and made a scary face, then collapsed into a fit of giggles. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper just shook her head, trying to hide the goofy grin on her face behind a wing. “Polar!” She tried and failed to keep her voice serious as she scolded him, smacking the other dragonet in the shoulder with her tail in mock anger as he started shaking from laughter. “C’mon, the SandWings are going to hear us!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar suddenly turned serious, and Copper could hear the extra horns on his ruff clacking against each other as he nodded. Slowly she lowered her wing again, noticing how worried he looked. “That’s true,” he said, speaking very quietly now. Her friend’s eyes darted up towards the canopy, then over behind them, then snapped over to Copper again. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Well I messed that up,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought to herself with an inward sigh. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I didn’t mean to scare him at all. I keep forgetting he’s so jumpy. I wonder why that is.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Polar tensely looked around for several moments, then relaxed, looking into the fire. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know...you know why I ran away?” he asked quietly after what felt like an eternity. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper tilted her head, suddenly feeling pretty serious herself as whatever remained of her laughter and merriment faded away. “You said they wanted you to be a soldier,” she answered, lowering her voice and speaking softly like the IceWing did. “Why? What happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar looked away, then heaved a sigh. “Yeah...that’s part of it.” Slowly he tilted his head up, looking out at the stars and the first moon above their heads. “I’m actually the oldest of all my brothers and sisters, you know. I have four sisters, two brothers, and they’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>all </span>
  </em>
  <span>bigger than me. They’re in the Second and Third Circles mostly, and my sister Shard even made it to the First. I’m…” he stared at the ground, embarrassed. “I’m in the Seventh. My dad sometimes tells others that Shard is the oldest instead of me because she’s big and strong like he wanted me to be. He hates me because I’m so much smaller and more…” Polar swallowed. “...More pathetic than them. He wanted me to be terrifying like Shard is, she did everything to make our family proud. She’s killed other dragons, too, before the war ended. I...I never could...Dad said that I was a failure…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s heart stung like it had been hit with a SandWing tail as the dragonet’s voice faded to silence. He cast a miserable look at the orange flames that she’d set alight, blinking hard as if he was trying not to cry. Silence filled the air, punctuated only by an occasional crackle and snap from the fire. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper swallowed hard.  “Oh Polar...I’m...I’m so sorry…” she managed to whisper, scooting a little closer and putting a wing around him like he’d done for her earlier. “You're not a failure at all. I think you're great.” He met her gaze for a moment, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, Copper.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled a little as his face slowly lightened, and a minute later Polar seemed to drop the mournful expression completely and adopted a more relaxed countenance instead, leaning into Copper’s wing. “You’re the one that showed me I couldn’t do this alone, I think you deserve the thanks,” she told him, her blood-red eyes meeting his glacier-blue ones.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar’s face shifted into more of a hopeful expression. “You really think so?” he asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Definitely.” Copper nodded vigorously. “I think you’re awesome, Polar. If your dad says that you’re a failure, then I say he’s wrong.” Her voice was firm as she spoke, and the look on Polar’s face made her heart feel like it was wrapped in sunbeams.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The IceWing grinned from ear to ear, then hugged Copper and turned to lay his head down on his talons. “Thank you,” he said as Copper drew her wing back from where it rested on his shoulder, catching a waft of chilly air off his scales as she did. He settled down several feet away from the fire, turning away from the heat to face the darkness. “Goodnight, Copper.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper settled herself down between her new friend and the fire to shield Polar from the unwelcome heat, scratching her scales on the piney forest floor before facing the flames and stilling herself in the darkness. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Goodnight, Polar.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The SandWings attacked at night.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper awoke to the sound of someone screaming, jolting to her feet in a foggy daze and swinging her head around, trying to figure out what was happening. It was completely dark, but an ear-splitting screech pierced the air somewhere off to her right as she squinted into the darkness, trying to clear the fog from her mind. Suddenly, the sharp cries cut off with what sounded like a whimper, and there was a rustling noise in that same spot. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar?” she whispered, glancing to where she’d last seen the IceWing dragonet. The fire had died down to embers and the moons were all but covered in clouds, but as she looked over the dark space her heart dropped down clear to her toes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  
  <span>Polar was gone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey! Get off me! Stop it! Please, I wasn’t going to hurt anyone, I swear!” Copper turned towards the sounds, eyes widening as a familiar and horribly nervous voice suddenly racked through the darkness. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That has to be Polar, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought with horror, shivers tingling down her spine as she felt her way through the darkness.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Of course he’s too scared to use his frostbreath. But what happened? Who attacked us? Why? Why did they leave me? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper scooted closer to the sounds, her heart pounding. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I can’t see anything…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up!” another voice snarled. Copper’s eyes hurt from squinting, but finally she made out a few shapes in the near-pitch black night. She moved even closer, realizing that Polar was pinned down a few feet away by a furious-looking SandWing as she froze only a tail’s flick away. Two more sand-colored dragons stood on either side of him, and Copper realized with a sickening feeling of dread in her gut that somehow they must have been caught by a patrol after all. A horrifying image flashed through her head--her mother as she fell limply to the ground when that SandWing tail smashed into her wing. Even now, the dragon standing over Polar had his tail curled over his back in a menacing fashion. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Never again!</span>
  </em>
</p><p><span>“GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Copper suddenly exploded from hiding place in the darkness, flaring her wings wide and swinging her tail around full-force as she slammed into the SandWing standing over her friend. There was no time to think about </span><em><span>what </span></em><span>exactly she planned on doing as the other dragon flew backwards from the force of her attack, and both hit the ground hard</span> <span>as surprised yelps rose from the other two SandWings. Copper had slid clear off her opponent’s backside in the collision, and she quickly stood to her feet and sent a blast of fire at one of the guards who was starting after her. The SandWing ducked and rolled with a sharp cry of alarm, and the other whirled around to attack as well. </span></p><p>
  <span>In the confusion, Polar had somehow gotten loose and now scrambled up the nearest tree with his sharp claws, leaving dark marks in the trunk and not even pausing until he was well above the fight. He stopped at a large branch, turning to stare at them with enormous eyes. Copper knew without asking what had happened to the IceWing--too scared to fight and too whatever-it-was to ditch her and save his own scales. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he had to get out of there. Two dragonets would never be any match for three angry SandWing guards, no matter what miracle she hoped for.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“POLAR, YOU GET YOUR MONKEY-FACED TAIL OUT OF HERE, YOU HEAR ME?!” Copper reared up on her hind talons and spat a burst of fire at him too, being careful so that none of the flames actually went close enough to hurt Polar, but hopefully just close enough to scare him. The IceWing yelped and drew back, eyes wide with fright as he backed up further into the tree. All the attention of SandWings turned to him, and Copper knew that there was no way she could keep all of the guards down here forever. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“POLAR, </span>
  <em>
    <span>GO</span>
  </em>
  <span>!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The silver dragonet cast one more petrified look back down at the four, then turned and shot off like a rocket just as one of the SandWings tried to take off after him. “No, stay here!” the one that appeared to be in charge bellowed. Something smacked into Copper’s side, and before she knew it her neck and wings were pinned down beneath two very, </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> angry-looking SandWings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this the one that we saw when we came down?” asked the one on Copper’s left in a somewhat anxious tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How would we know?” snarled the leader, glaring him down on Copper’s right. “We can’t even see the little monster.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who are you?” asked the third, finally landing and moving over to the first two. He looked at the space between her neck and wing as he moved closer, squinting like he somehow couldn't see her either. Copper writhed under the guard’s talons for a moment in a desperate attempt to break free, but the SandWings held her small body down easily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s definitely here,” one grunted, stepping down even harder on Copper’s wing. “Wigglin’ like a salamander, too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Watch it,” Copper snarled up at her captors. “That’s my wing you’re stepping on.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two holding her down exchanged looks of surprise. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why can’t we see you?” the third SandWing questioned, swiping at Copper’s snout as if to confirm that it was there and yelping when she bit down on his talon. He drew back with a hiss, releasing a mouthful of fire into the remaining branches that Copper and Polar had collected just that evening, then turning to glare at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fury crackled over his face in the light of the new fire; Copper knew he saw nothing. Now that she could see she took in the appearances of the guards--the first SandWing's scales were a light tan in color, with hints of cream around his wings and bits of grey and darker brown around his crest. He was clutching his talon gingerly, and Copper saw a nasty scar on his shoulder as he turned away. She quickly turned to look at her other two captors, and noticed that they weren’t quite so colorful--the leader was a light tan with a few shades of reddish-brown, and the other was pale yellow with a few missing teeth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stay back, Jackal,” growled the leader. “And you,” she stepped down on Copper’s wing as well. “Answer the question before we get tired of you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper knew that it was useless to struggle, and something told her that 'tired’ of her meant that they were going to kill her next if she didn't give them what they wanted. </span>
  <em>
    <span>But what do they want? I don't have anything. </span>
  </em>
  <span>“I...I don’t know…” she said after a minute. “I can see me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The IceWing could see him,” Jackal remarked. “I saw, he was staring right at her!” He paused for a moment, still holding his talon, then the yellow SandWing broke in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So why can’t we see her?” He growled, casting a look at the leader. “What do you think, Lithop? Kill her now?” Lithop studied what must have been the empty ground beneath her, then finally shook her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, not yet. We take her to Cactus.” Her eyes narrowed. “What are you, invisible dragon?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper thought for a moment. Should she be honest? It wasn’t like these SandWings could see her--but if Beetle and Sandstone could, who was to say that others wouldn’t be able to as well? What if they found out that she was lying and killed her? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well?” Lithop growled, her talons pricking into Copper’s wings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I’m a SkyWing…” she said finally. </span>
  <em>
    <span>A funny looking one,</span>
  </em>
  <span> her mind added, but she didn't say that out loud. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“A SkyWing?” the pale one yelped. “Are they planning something?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper shook her head, then realized that the SandWings couldn’t see her. “No…” She wasn’t sure how much she should reveal to this patrol, and there was a moment of tense silence while the three guards waited impatiently for an explanation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lithop hissed. “Speak up,” she ordered, pressing down even harder on Copper’s wing membrane. She winced, but didn't cry out.</span>
</p><p>
  
  <span>“Are you guys from the Scorpion Den?” she suddenly blurted, then bit her tongue as she realized what she’d said. What if they weren’t? Lithop glanced between her two subordinates. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Possibly,” she answered after a moment. “How does that concern you?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper swallowed. It was now or never. “I..well...my mother had some friends that were Outclaws, so I was thinking that maybe I could--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All three SandWings immediately burst out laughing, cutting her off before she could say anymore. They slapped their wings and tails against the ground around her, bellowing with laughter, and for a horrifying moment Copper thought that they were going to stab her with those venomous barbs. After a minute, however, they calmed down, shaking their heads and chuckling as Lithop stepped off Copper’s wing and let the pale yellow one step on instead. Copper was too shocked to even try and escape as the leader turned around to look her in the face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s real cute, SkyWing.” Lithop chortled, then motioned for the other two SandWings to pull Copper into the sky with her as she lifted off. “An invisible dragon with an IceWing friend claiming to have contacts in the Scorpion Den, how believable.” she snorted. “Jackal, Erosion, c’mon, let’s take this looney-bird to Cactus. Maybe then we’ll get some real answers, eh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A sickening feeling of dread settled in the pit of Copper’s stomach as the two SandWing guards dragged her up after Lithop, stiller than a statue in their talons. What if this really was her last stop? What if she never found Beetle, and these dragons all believed she was a spy? What if she couldn't escape?</span>
</p><p><span>What if she never made it out of the Scorpion Den alive</span>?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Before you ask: no, apparently I can't keep a schedule. Time is fake.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Copper said nothing as the SandWings carried her across the desert and towards the Scorpion den, not even bothering to hold herself up and dangling limply from their claws. A part of her hoped that somehow her captors would drop her and give her a chance to escape, though on the other talon she knew it wasn't going to happen. There were too many emotions to even get out a sound; anger, horror, fear, apprehension, and worry. Worry especially--not for herself, but for the IceWing that she had been forced to leave behind. Had Polar gotten out safely, or had he been attacked again? Was there an ambush waiting for him--was that why the SandWings had let him get away? Did he ever make it out of the desert? Was he dead? Dying? Had he reached the IceWings safely? Had his dad tried to hurt him when he got back, or, worse yet, killed him for running away? What if the Ice Kingdom was no safer than the Kingdom of Sand for her nervous friend?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Over and over, Copper went through every possible thing that could have gone wrong for Polar after his escape the night before. She couldn’t help it, after all the very thought that Polar might be hurt while she was helpless to do anything nearly drove her to insanity, but there was nothing she could do about it. Nothing, that is, but wait and think and hope that her friend had made it out of the desert alive. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The SandWings’ talons were gripped tightly and almost painfully so around Copper’s wings, an almost foolproof way to prevent escape as far as she was concerned. If her captors so much as imagined that she was trying to escape--Bam! Copper would never see the sky again once that venomous tail hit her. No, she couldn't risk escaping that way, not with such a high likelihood of getting killed in the process. Copper had to figure out another way to get out of her captor’s clutches. What she would do after that she had no idea, but it seemed like a good idea to focus on escaping for the time being and cross the other bridges when she got to them. At first she tried to memorize landmarks they passed so that she would know how to get back to the forest, but they were so few and far between that she quickly realized what a hopeless venture that would be. She’d just have to wait and see what happened, Copper decided.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took the three SandWings several hours before the foursome reached the edges of the Scorpion Den. Erosion and Jackal were pretty strong and hardly seemed bothered by the trek at all; they didn’t even appear to be breathing hard as they slowed down by the Outclaw border wall after morning. The desert sun illuminated what Copper knew to be the Scorpion Den beyond it, and she recognized a myriad of SandWings in different shades and shapes of yellow and tan flying and walking around below in the well-known Outclaw city. She thought she saw the red scales of Skywings here and there, the occasional silver and blue of IceWings, and possibly even a RainWing or two, colors that gave Copper a bit of hope in what was to come for her. Maybe if those dragons could make a home here, so could she, provided that this ‘Cactus’ character wasn't as mean as he already sounded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper twisted her head to get a better view of the city as they flew closer, squinting at the few silvery shapes down there and trying to see if any of the IceWings might be Polar. Despite the intense lighting from the sun beating down on them, the dragons were simply much too far away for her to tell, and Copper closed her eyes in frustration. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Besides,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she told herself with a sigh. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Why would he come here? It makes no sense. Not to the home of the dragons that tried to kill him. He's smarter than that. Not to mention there's no plausible way he could have gotten here already.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe if she could find Beetle though, maybe she and Sandstone would help her and she wouldn’t have to go before this “Cactus” at all. Maybe she still had a chance. </span>
  <em>
    <span>If only I could find them. Maybe Lithop knows Beetle.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper opened her mouth to ask if one of her captors might possibly know anything about Beetle, but she quickly stopped and clamped her mouth shut when Lithop motioned for Erosion and Jackal to start descending towards the edge of the city. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Pay attention,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought to herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I might find something that can help me get out of here. Maybe I'll even see Beetle.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>There was an enormous guarded wall all around the city. Lithop led the four dragons over towards a large gated entrance, her guards still holding Copper tightly between them. As they drew closer she noticed that there was another SandWing standing next to the gate, a bolder sandy brown than the three that carried her, and he glanced at Copper before giving the three SandWings curious looks.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where’d you find that freak?” he asked, flicking his tail at her. The SandWing's tone wasn't unkind, but anger still bubbled up inside Copper’s chest at how casual he was, as if she were no more than some inanimate source of his entertainment. She growled and bared her teeth at him, but he ignored her reaction completely as Lithop cursed under her breath, then stepped over to the gate where the other guard stood so that they could speak where their prisoner couldn’t hear them. Jackal and Erosion likewise talked, but unlike Lithop had no problem with doing it right in front of the now-furious Copper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you think she is?” Jackal was the first to speak up, an amused look on his face as he glanced at Erosion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m a SkyWing!” Copper snapped before her other guard could answer. “What else would I be?!” This earned her a smack in the snout from the side of Erosion’s tail and she drew back with a hiss, lashing her tail back and forth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up,” he snarled at her, “or I'll kill you right now, nevermind Lithop's orders.” He glared at her neck for a moment, probably guessing that was where Copper’s face was, then suddenly seemed to calm down. “Not sure,” he said with a shake of his head, turning back to Jackal, “but I bet Burn would’ve paid a lot to have her in her weirdling collection. Too bad she's dead. Dragonet was the funniest looking thing too--at least before she was invisible. I wonder if she’d still be invisible if we killed her?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jackal shrugged, but his answer was interrupted as the darker brown SandWing guard suddenly started hollering at Lithop over by the gate. “Whaddya mean she’s invisible?” he bellowed, pointing at Copper with his talon. “I can see her right there, plain as day! Are you nuts? Stayed out in the sun too long or something?” Lithrop growled something at him in response that Copper couldn’t hear, her black eyes flashing. Both SandWings looked absolutely furious, something that seemed to surprise Jackal and Erosion quite a bit. They stared at each other with worried expressions and shuffled their talons nervously, neither daring to say so much as a word to the other while Lithop and the guard hurled insults at each other just a few feet away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a few more minutes of snapping teeth, lashing tails, threats, and insults between Lithop and the gatekeeper, the darker SandWing suddenly turned around and stormed over toward Jackal, Erosion, and Copper. Her two captors looked terrified as he approached, but kept looking at Lithrop as if waiting for her to say something so that they could release her and not get into trouble. She didn’t. Lithop didn't even glance at her subordinates, instead turning and stomping through the gate and into the city in a furious silence. The last Copper saw of her was that venomous tail lashing back and forth behind her as it disappeared from view.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Move!” the gatekeeper partly spread his wings and snarled at Erosion and Jackal as he approached, black eyes glittering with anger. To Copper’s surprise the two Outclaws scrambled out of his way, eyes wide with fear as he grabbed Copper’s talon and held it up. She growled at him, but one look from those black eyes and she shut up too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look, Mamba,” Jackal tried uneasily, keeping a safe distance away from the infuriated SandWing with his head held low, but he was cut off by an angry growl. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get out of my sight before I skin you two camel-faced morons alive,” Mamba snapped, tail raised threateningly like he was about to stab both of the SandWings right then and there. Jackal and Erosion exchanged terrified glances, then immediately turned and fled for the Scorpion Den as fast as their wings could carry them. In a flash of pale yellow and tan scales they were gone, leaving only a wake of turbulent desert air behind them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba glared at the empty space that the two SandWings had previously occupied for a small eternity, then swiveled his long neck around to place his black gaze on Copper. “So, SkyWing,” he said slowly, eyes narrowing. “Explain to me what you’re doing out here and make it quick, 'fore I throw you out to those three again.” His face softened slightly as he spoke, but he still looked terrifying in Copper’s opinion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I…” she swallowed anxiously, realizing with no small amount of panic that making something up would get her nowhere with this dragon. Anger melted to terror in an instant, and her tongue felt like it was made of sand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I...My mother was killed a few days ago by Outclaws,” Copper suddenly blurted, then clapped a talon over her mouth with a squeak.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Three moons, I'm about to die. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Her eyes darted from side to side, and she wondered for a second if she could take off and get out before Mamba stabbed her with his barbed tail.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And…?” Shock rolled through Copper's body at the SandWing's calm reaction. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He's not--</span>
  </em>
  <span>Mamba’s voice interrupted her thoughts before her mind could go any further. “Something tells me that you haven’t exactly come here to get revenge,” he said, “or those three wouldn’t have got you here in one piece, unless they somehow convinced you that they weren't Outclaws.” Mamba rolled his eyes. “Something I very much doubt. Those three are about as helpful as a camel fart, and not much smarter even when put together. Why else would I have ‘em out so far on patrol?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper could do nothing but stare in shock, and Mamba laughed when he saw the look on her face. “Trust me lass, there are some scary Outclaws out there. Those three ain't a part of em, I assure you.” He glanced over her oddly colored scales and eyes, shaking his head. “You’re really not from around here, are you?”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper suddenly remembered when she'd told Polar about how his face gave away everything. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Am I doing that right now?</span>
  </em>
  <span> She swallowed, trying to force a calm look into her face. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I must have been.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Glancing up, she squared her shoulders and looked Mamba in the eye. “I didn't come here to hurt anybody,” she said, hoping she sounded a least a little confident.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba nodded. “So, your mother was killed,” he said, sitting back as if he wasn't worried about Copper at all. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He probably knows I'm scared to death,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Now I really wish I'd learned to do this from mother. I bet he couldn't have read her.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Mamba glanced back at the gate. “You're not here for revenge, clearly, and you don't look like a ruffian to me. I’m sorry to hear about your mother, but why’d you come here, SkyWing? Ain't no dragon here for sunshine and rainbows, I can promise ya that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper drew in a deep breath, staring at her claws. “Well, she knew a few Outclaws--my mom did. We traded with them every week, and I...I don’t really have anywhere else to go,” she said. It was a bit of a risk to tell Mamba this, but she felt oddly safe around him, like he was dangerous but still someone that she could trust. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Or maybe it’s a trick,</span>
  </em>
  <span> her brain added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your scales,” Mamba said. He didn't seem so frightening now despite her doubts, and Copper could only nod in answer. The SandWing glanced back at the gate, then suddenly stood and motioned for Copper to follow. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll take you to Cactus. We’ll see if we can sort any of this out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A tremor slithered up Copper’s spine when “Cactus” was mentioned again, whoever he was, but she felt much better about facing whoever the Outclaw leader was with Mamba than with those other three. “Okay,” she said, straightening herself out and following Mamba towards the gate. “Sounds good, I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba nodded, then set off at a brisk pace through the gate and into the tight-cornered city that lay beyond its iron bars. Copper stayed right on the SandWing’s heels; even so the gatekeeper draped his tail over her shoulders for extra measure as they walked. Another SandWing, presumably an Outclaw, slithered in to take Mamba's previous position by the gate as they left, not even glancing over at the two as he settled down and glared out at the sand ahead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Scorpion Den was a strange, hot, and noisy melting pot of about every kind of smell and emotion and dragon and food Copper had ever seen before in her life and more. Sharp spices stung her nostrils and throat as they passed a large stand that seemed to be selling them, cooked flesh of some kind was available at a stall further down, jewelry practically poured into the street from yet another across the cobblestone road, and Brightsting cactus seemed to be poking from the corners of every stall and canopy. Shouts, growls, and yelps filled the air to a steady hum, and a few bellowing voices rose above the din to greet Copper's ears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Water, get the freshest and cheapest in the entire desert right here!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Roasted lizards for sale, come get your roasted lizards!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pearls, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, we got ‘em all! Need something to pretty up your scales?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper let out a yowl as someone stepped on her tail and nearly tripped into Mamba’s backside as a result, but by the time her guard turned around to snarl at the guilty dragon they seemed to have disappeared entirely. She moved even closer to Mamba after that, pressing close to his side as they waded through crowds of skinny, battle-torn dragons and well-muscled Outclaws. Here and there a tiny dragonet scampered through the hundreds of talons scraping over the hard cobblestone streets, and SandWings bickered with each other as they passed by.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite the crowding however, almost every single dragon that caught sight of Mamba seemed to disappear immediately. Some backed away with hisses of what seemed like fear or anger; some simply vanished from sight without a sound. Others grumbled and stepped aside, making way for the Outclaw and his prisoner. One SandWing didn't get out of the way fast enough and Mamba snarled at him before exhaling a puff of fire that singed the tip of his tail. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“WHAT THE-” The near-white SandWing yelped in pain, bouncing back before he caught sight of who'd burned him and scampered out of sight without another word. Copper’s slightly widened eyes trailed up to find Mamba’s, but his face was unreadable as they continued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After about half an hour of striding unimpeded through the city, the two dragons reached a collection of massive tents set up outside of what appeared to be a huge oasis. Four tents arced around the water’s edge, surrounded by enormous and fierce-looking guards that stood in front of even more bristling defenses that patrolled the water's edge. A fifth tent was set up just beyond the first four and was bigger than all of them, bustling with activity. Copper was so busy taking in the scene that she didn't notice Mamba had stopped in front of her. Biting back a yelp as she nearly plowed into her guard's rear end,  Copper instead tripped over to the side in a spray of dust. Mamba turned around with a frown, but once he saw how frightened his prisoner looked, he instead shook his head and laughed out loud.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry, SkyWing,” he said. “I’m not really that scary. Just keeping up face for the Outclaws, you know? Gotta keep them fools in line or this place goes to chaos real quick.” The SandWing chuckled, sitting back and shaking out his wings with a sigh. Copper slowly sat next to him, and Mamba glanced at her with grin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw, c'mon now, am I really that terrifying?” He stuck his tongue out at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper was about to answer, but a sharp command from inside the tent interrupted her instead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Enter!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She jumped, startled, but Mamba only cast a glare at the tent before getting up again and motioning for Copper to follow. She obeyed him without question despite what seemed like an almost goofy side to the previously angry SandWing, standing and racing after the her guard through the open tent flap before he could leave her behind outside.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Three moons. Three moons. Three moons. Three. Moons. THREE. MOONS.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The tent flap fluttered back to reveal a rather terrifying sight: two SandWings were planted in the front of the tent, flapping their wings and beating their tails and shouting angrily at one another while nearly a half a dozen more SandWings watched quietly a few feet away, beady eyes glancing between each other and the argument. A couple guards posted at the tent flaps were poking their heads in to stare as well, bodies tense and still while they watched. One glanced up, looked over Copper for a moment as she peered in, then turned his head back to watch the fight as though she were infinitely less interesting than it was. Copper couldn’t take her eyes off the two bellowing SandWings and swallowed hard, heart thumping wildly in her chest, but before she could have any second thoughts about what was about to happen Mamba shoved her inside with a talon and stepped in after her.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m going to die,</span>
  </em>
  <span> was all she could think.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The very instant Mamba shooed her through the tent flap, however, everything inside the cloth structure fell to silence as if by some kind of animus spell. The two dragons that had been arguing instantly stopped mid-sentence, wings still flaring but no longer creating such violent gusts as they paused, then slowly turned to stare at their newly-arrived guest. Copper’s ears were still ringing from all the shouting, and she suspected that she wasn’t the only one that felt that way as she noticed a couple of the spectating SandWings rubbing their ears as if in pain. She wanted to do the same, but her talons felt paralyzed as the two SandWings narrowed their black, beady, malevolent eyes upon her as she nervously crept inside.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>So,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought to herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>This is Cactus. Three moons. Three moons she is ENORMOUS. And she doesn’t look to happy that I interrupted her little shouting fest. Great.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>It was pretty obvious to Copper which of the two arguing dragons was Cactus. The enormous SandWing was about twice the size of every other dragon in the tent, for one, wings partly outstretched so that she somehow took up even </span>
  <em>
    <span>more </span>
  </em>
  <span>space in the cramped atmosphere towards the front of the structure. A surly expression was fixed upon the Outclaw’s face, eyes narrowed and tail flicking slowly back and forth while she slowly inspected her new--no, not guest, that didn’t seem right--prisoner from head to toe and back again. Cactus stood quite dominantly above the other SandWing that she'd been previously yelling at, her muscled body littered with horrendous scars and almost glowing in the bright light that spilled in from the tent flap and exploded against her scales. The SandWing’s small black eyes bored into Copper’s dull red ones like she was some kind of exhibit, her ebony pupils a stark contrast to the light reddish-brown coloring upon her scales and long tail, which still flipped back and forth over her front talons in silence. Cactus’ crest was a darker sort of grey as well, a color which shone dully in the sunlight and also matched a small scattering of spots that lined her wings and spine. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It felt like eons passed as Cactus stared at Copper, examining her with glinting beady eyes like a snake’s. Copper thought that the SandWing’s eyes looked like live coals, she seemed so angry, and the other dragons in the tent waited for what the colossal dragon had to say in dead silence. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I could hear a sand grain drop.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Slowly Cactus’ head swiveled around towards the SandWing that she’d been arguing with, and Copper could tell when their eyes met by the way her eyes flared with anger. The other SandWing glared back at her, partly in defiance and partly in what appeared to be unease, shuffling his talons a little uncertainly beneath him though he held his gaze steady. Mamba didn’t seem to have moved since pushing Copper into the tent and still watched Cactus carefully with a mostly blank expression, though she thought that she detected some concern somewhere in his black eyes as well. She started to wonder why Mamba had become so tense where he’d been so much more open and relaxed earlier, but before she could whisper anything to him Cactus’ voice shot through the tent like a thundercrack. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll finish this later,” she snarled at the other SandWing, motioning with a flick of her tail towards the guards by the tent flap. Two of them entered immediately, slithering toward the two opponents and eyeing Cactus for a moment before they pulled out the smaller, yellow-tan colored SandWing who still had his eyes fixed on the Outclaw leader. He glared at the guards as they approached him but didn't resist, shaking his head and muttering angrily under his breath as he disappeared back outside and into the blinding desert light.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cactus watched the other SandWing leave in an infuriated silence, then turned and narrowed her eyes at Mamba. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What have you brought?” She asked. Or rather, growled. Cactus didn't seem like the type to ask nicely much. Copper nervously stepped back, but was stopped when Mamba put a wing on her back. Her guard bowed respectfully, then motioned to Copper with a talon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She was found by a patrol out on the border, says she has some friends here,” he answered, shrugging as though this was the most common thing in the world. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Well, it probably is,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper realized suddenly. </span>
  <em>
    <span>It probably sounds good talking to the dragons around here if you have scary friends. I bet they get lied to a lot, really. And they feed the Outclaws, don't they? I wonder if I could get any food here, once they know who I am. Or who I know. That’s probably how it works here.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that so?” Cactus leveled her sharp black gaze on Copper, and she tried not to flinch at the motion. “Tell me: who are you looking for, SkyWing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper swallowed. “My...My name is Copper,” she replied after a moment, lifting her chin a little and trying to look brave. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Outclaws admire bravery, right?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper’s heart beat faster and faster as she tried to keep her knees from shaking. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Don'tbescareddon'tbescareddon'tbescareddon’tbescared…</span>
  </em>
  <span>There was a long pause before she managed to find her voice, but finally she managed to speak up again, her voice a little less squeaky than before. “I...I’m looking for Beetle?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It looked like a storm cloud washed over Cactus’ face as she seemed to recognize the name. The wrinkles around the Outclaw’s snout quickly deepened into a horrible snarl that exposed every chipped and bloodstained tooth, and her eyes flashed like black pools of anger and malice. “You are.” It was not a question. Cactus’ voice was dark and furious, talons clenching slowly into fists. “You...I was going to kill that stupid--” Suddenly, the SandWing stopped mid-sentence, jaw dropping and eyes widening.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“WHERE’D SHE GO!?” a shriek like thunder tore through the tent as Cactus jumped to her feet without warning, wings flapping and body rigid as if in...could it be fear? Copper’s own body tensed. What could this behemoth of a SandWing Ouclaw possibly be afraid of? Had one of the guards been kidnapped? Had one of her subjects disappeared? She stepped back anxiously, her own eyes widening at the spectacle that Cactus was creating. Her eyes bulged and her wings flared, tail whipping back and forth across the sand until the tent was full of dust. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What is going on?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Every single dragon in the tent froze upon hearing Cactus’ first cries. After a small hesitation, they now all turned to stare at Copper as she shrank back against the side of the tent, SandWings turning rigid one by one as they laid eyes upon her copper-colored form. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“SHE WAS RIGHT HERE!!!” Cactus bellowed meanwhile. “WHERE IS MY PRISONER?!?” Her screams started several guards outside who now rushed to defend their leader, stumbling over each other as they entered and looking around in confusion. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s right here,” Mamba spoke up quickly, brow furrowing while his wing slowly shifted from Copper’s back, but his words came much too late as the guard’s voice was merely picked up and drowned by the growing racket of panicking  SandWing voices.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where’d the SkyWing go?!” one yelled, barging past the others and swinging his tail out at the empty space in front of him. Copper pressed even further against the wall while Mamba stared in a sort of shocked silence, seemingly paralyzed until another Outclaw rammed into the first and knocked him away with a wing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s right there, are you </span>
  <em>
    <span>blind</span>
  </em>
  <span>? Even I can see her! You’re going to kill someone, you idiot!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No she’s not! You’re lying!” Another SandWing shoved his neighbor to get a closer look, and before anyone knew what was happening the entire tent erupted into chaos. Copper froze in place by the wall, mouth agape. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>THREE MOONS!</span>
  </em>
  <span> her mind screamed. </span>
  <em>
    <span>They’re talking about me! Three moons! Three moons! Three moons! What do I do? Why can’t they see me?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Her eyes darted around the tent as panic welled in her chest. </span>
  <em>
    <span>How am I not already dead? How am I going to get out? I’m gonna get stabbed if I don’t get outta here. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Sharp, shallow breaths sliced through her lungs before she forced herself to calm. </span>
  <em>
    <span>No. Calm down. Wait a minute. Think about it. I’m totally surrounded, but somehow I’m invisible. That’s good. Means it’ll be harder to kill me. But I don’t know where the guards are outside…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper suddenly glanced up to see that Mamba was still staring at her amidst all the commotion, unmoving while Ouclaws darted out of the tent to search for her, scrambled in trying to see what was happening, or tried unsuccessfully to shout out orders above all the noise. His black eyes remained locked on Copper’s, body rigid but his expression calm. Suddenly, he shook his head. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He can still see me, only heaven knows why, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought as she found herself looking to the SandWing for instruction. Surely he would know what to do; he was the only Outclaw in the other tent not in some kind of panic over Copper’s “disappearance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get out,” Mamba finally hissed at her, shaking his head again and nudging her towards the tent flap with his wing. “I don’t know what you are, but you’d better get out quick.” His actions and words both somehow went completely unnoticed by the other SandWings, much to Copper’s relief as she scooted along the side of the tent towards a more open spot. The Ouclaws seemed to be quite oblivious to the odd actions of just one dragon among their panicking forces. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper glanced at the tent flap, now completely blocked by a swarm of SandWings all hollering and arguing and shoving one another as they tried to get in to see what was going on or get out to look for their escaped prisoner. After a moment of looking, her gaze slowly shifted towards the ceiling.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only option was to go up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper spread her wings, no worries about being seen here, and let the fire build up in her throat. She needed a burst of flames large enough to burn a hole that she could fit through, but at the same time she really, </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>didn’t want to get burned while in the middle of her escape.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s going to set the tent on fire!” A scream erupted off to her left--so much for not being seen--and a wide-eyed SandWing bolted towards her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re mad!” A familiar shout came from her other side, and the attacking Outclaw quickly found herself being shoved violently back by Mamba’s talons. “What are you doing?!” He screamed at her, shaking her shoulder with a talon. “Are you insane?! Scaring all the others like this! Get out of here! Go find the prisoner!” He heaved the other SandWing away towards the tent flap before she could react and spun around, catching Copper’s eye and winking at her before he turned and leaped into the pandemonium of flapping wings and whipping venomous tails. Any sane dragon would have to scramble to get out of his way, and Copper almost found herself wanting to laugh at his incredible acting skills.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Now’s not the time to be thinking about that!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Blood-red eyes darted to the ceiling once more. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Let’s get out of here.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper glanced around to make sure that she was invisible still, then breathed in one last lungful of the hot, dusty air inside the tent. Tilting her head upright, she then exhaled a large fireball at the cloth which hung above her head, keeping the flames going for as long as she dared before her own throat burned from the heat. The white fabric caught fire immediately, much to her elation, and as the flimsy surface burned away Copper flared her wings out and bolted up through the hole she’d created. Everything was now or never.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wisps of flame burned her wingtips as she shot past, but thankfully the heat from the fire did not last long enough to burn her scales at all before she had made her way past it at breakneck speed. The chaos beneath almost seemed to triple, however; below her metal-tinted wings Copper could see that the tent appeared to be on the verge of collapsing from the commotion ensuing within. The thick cloth sides all bulged outward strangely as SandWings smacked into them from the inside, and several fluttering around outside the tent were looking to the skies in confusion. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course it was here that disaster struck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something slipped off her wrist, and Copper glanced down at her talons in horror to see that her copper bracelet had somehow become unclasped and was now plummeting towards the ground. </span>
  <em>
    <span>No. Not my mother. I can’t lose this.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Below, the streets were crowded with dragons from the Scorpion Den. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What if I get caught?</span>
  </em>
  <span> A glint caught her eye and Copper’s jaw set. </span>
  <em>
    <span>No way. I have to get it.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She turned to shoot after her most prized possession, but suddenly froze as several shrill cries pierced the air. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“HEY! There she is! THERE SHE IS! Over there! Go! Go! GET HER!!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper felt like all the air had been squeezed out of her chest, watching that last reminder of Fly she would ever know tumble into the crowds below while she forced herself not to follow. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I have to go. I have to go. I have to go NOW.</span>
  </em>
  <span> These thoughts didn’t really help, and a sob worked its way up Copper’s throat before she forced it back down and coughed up a few sparks instead. A squadron of SandWings had already been sent after her, though much to Copper’s relief there were no other SkyWings with them and the dragons below didn’t seem all that interested. SkyWings were about the only dragons that could ever hope to outrun Copper--the SandWings’ wings would be no match for hers if this ended anything like her expedition with Polar the day before. Copper spun around and took off towards the open desert just as a few of the Outclaws tried to spit flames at her, though she was much too far ahead of the SandWings for their fire to reach her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pursuing and the pursued flew on and on, red and black eyes watching first the cobblestone streets and stalls of the Scorpion Den and then the open desert whiz by in a blur beneath her wings. The dunes out in the desert seemed to stretch on forever, rolling over and over and over each other in waves like an ocean of sand. Copper worried a little when the city passed out of sight entirely behind her, but there was nothing she could do about it--the Outclaws’ curses and shrieks still rang clearly in her ears with every beat of her wings. Her only hope was to out-fly those SandWings now, as whatever had made her invisible before wasn’t doing it for her anymore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It felt like eternities passed, but after a while Copper noticed that something else had changed aside from the scenery. She couldn't hear the SandWings so well now, their cries seemed to blur and fade over the swirling wind instead of easily reaching her ears like they did only a short while ago. Copper glanced back, and when she did her thoughts were confirmed. The SandWings were indeed falling behind. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another hour and a half passed, then finally Copper turned and saw that the far-off shapes of the SandWings had turned around, no longer chasing after her in a flurry of curses and wingbeats. Immediately she stopped, hovering, watching as her captors flew back towards the Scorpion Den, leaving her behind in the fierce desert sun. Everything suddenly seemed quiet. Nothing but the sounds of her own wingbeats echoed in her ears. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I made it,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper realized suddenly. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I actually escaped the Outclaws. I'm alive.</span>
  </em>
  <span> The SandWings were nearly gone now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was safe. </span>
  <em>
    <span>But for how long? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper scanned the desert again, red eyes narrowed. Nothing. </span>
  <em>
    <span>But why would they let me off so easily? Am I close to SkyWing territory? Did they think I was a spy? Did I really outfly them?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Thoughts, muddled and worried, chased themselves around her mind as the dots grew smaller and smaller on the horizon. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well, they </span>
  </em>
  <span>are</span>
  <em>
    <span> gone.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper glanced out at the dunes surrounding her. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Now what? How can I stay safe out here?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A minute later Copper started flying in the direction that she'd been chased in once more, deciding to fly on for a little longer just to make sure that she wouldn't be found by her captors again. It couldn't hurt to try, at least, and if she was careful about direction Copper would be able to figure out where to go later. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That is, if a place where I can go and be safe even exists,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought with a sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sun was still high in the sky by the time Copper finally stopped and landed at the base of a dune, but she was completely exhausted, both from the day’s events and the lack of sleep the night before. She curled up close by the bottom of the sandy mound next to a small, scraggly plant that was barely higher than her snout and tried to close her eyes. However, just as Copper thought she might finally be able to breathe easy again, she realized something else that made her spines stand on end.</span>
  <em>
    <span> My reflective scales--what if a patrol sees me somehow? Even if they don’t come out this far, they’re sure to see me and come investigate. I’m not invisible anymore to anyone...the bracelet! But how? How did my mother get something like that? Did Cactus find it after I dropped it? Is she going to keep it? Will she destroy it if she knows what it can do? Does she know what happened?</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p><span>Shaking her head, Copper started digging into the sand as fast as her talons were able to scoop it out, using her tail here and there to help bring up even larger amounts of the dusty soil. Carefully, she then piled it all next to her, slowly widening the hole and making it longer until the shallow cavity was almost as big as she was. “I hope this isn’t just wishful thinking,” she muttered to herself, examining the tiny crater.</span> <span>Well, maybe it was. But maybe...maybe it wasn’t. Maybe if she hid her body under the sand, it would help her camouflage herself from any SandWings that might come out here. Of course she’d have to keep her snout out so that she could breathe, though if she kept that part of her in the shade it was a whole lot better than just sitting out in plain sight where camoflauge was concerned.  </span></p><p>
  <span>Copper made the hole just a tiny bit longer to fit her tail, then started burying herself with the sand she’d piled up by the side. She used her tail to flip it over onto her wings and body first; after several scoops of sand the brilliant copper shades on her back slowly started to fade under the piles of dust. She wriggled her talons underneath her to bring more sand down on top, then tried to maneuver some of it onto her neck by twisting it awkwardly up and to the side in order to nudge the pile with her snout back onto herself. It took a few tries but she eventually got it to fall where she wanted, and Copper finished the job by flipping her tail back and forth until it too was covered in sand.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I must look hideous,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought, trying not to giggle as she placed her head in the sparse shade from the little plant so that her bright scales there wouldn't shine so much. She did have to breathe, after all. The camouflage of course wasn’t perfect, here and there a brilliant scale shown brightly under the sun’s rays, but hopefully the SandWings wouldn’t look too closely if any of them happened to fly by. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Besides,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she told herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Almost nobody ever comes out here anyways. Even the SandWings. I’ll be alright until nightfall.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A few minutes later, Copper was fast asleep. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I forgot agaaaaiiiinnnn</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“You know, I don’t think those scales help you much when you’re trying to hide, do they?” Copper jolted awake with a yelp of alarm, sending sand flying up in a cloud around her body as she leaped to her feet and swung towards where she thought she’d heard the voice. Her groggy mind creaked and rattled as she tried to remember where she was and what was going on; somewhere she was aware of the hot sun beating down on her scales. There was a muffled sort of thump, then someone started coughing as Copper rubbed the sand from her face and opened her eyes. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Polar! But why is it so bright? I thought it was night…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Suddenly Copper remembered, panic welling up inside her chest when she realized where she was and worse, that she was no longer alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a SandWing dragonet standing in front of her with scales the color of red sand, clutching something shiny in one talon while the other rubbed at the sand that Copper had kicked up out of his obsidian-colored eyes. “Blech!” he barked, throwing his head back and forth and tugging at his ears. “What was that for?” He turned his head to the side and spit out a mouthful of sand, rubbing his eyes one last time before glaring at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper glared back at the SandWing, feet planted firmly in the sand. This dragon was bigger than she was, but still about her age, and he didn’t seem to have any backup with him. She could fight him if she had to. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He doesn’t look like any patrol, though,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she realized after a moment.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Those SandWings are always big, and they’re always in groups. He’s alone.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper squinted at him. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He doesn’t look like he wants to capture me, either.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She still hesitated, but a moment later decided to try her luck with him anyhow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe you shouldn’t go around trying to scare dragons for no reason?” she suddenly growled at the SandWing, bristling a little. Her eyes darted again to the very shiny thing that he was holding in his hand, but he kept it covered so well with his claws that it was nearly impossible to see.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well...I...uh…” the other dragonet coughed again and sat down, holding up one of his talons in defense. “I didn’t mean to scare you! I mean, I was trying to get your attention, but not scare you!  I wasn’t really sure how to wake you up while covered in sand like that. That’s not really why I’m here, though. To scare you, I mean. I’m not that scary anyways...” He rambled on, but as he did something flashed in the sun as the SandWing’s grip loosened on the shiny thing that he’d been holding. Copper glanced over it again, then with a start she suddenly realized that it wasn’t just some ordinary piece of treasure the SandWing was holding. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He has my bracelet!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“You found it!” Copper cried, leaping over the weird shrub and grabbing the other SandWing’s talons in hers. The burly dragonet suddenly stopped talking and looked down in surprise, but he opened up his talon so that she could take it. “Thank you so much,” she whispered as she cradled the copper bracelet in her talons, then gingerly slid it onto her wrist. “Thank you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The SandWing stepped sideways and looked over at Copper, grinning shyly. “I saw it fall off and thought I might bring it to you,” he said quietly. “It seemed pretty special.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper nodded. “Yeah…” suddenly she stopped in her tracks as suspicion crackled in her chest. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Wait a minute. This can't be right--he's a SandWing! SandWings don't help SkyWings, especially after I just burned down the Outclaws’ tent! Well no...not all SandWings are Outclaws...Maybe he doesn't like the Outclaws? No, that doesn't make sense either, who would come all the way out here just because of that? Why would he be interested in helping me? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Her eyes widened as something suddenly clicked.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Three moons. No, it can’t be. But it has to...Unless…Wait a minute...</span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper’s eyes narrowed and looked a little more closely at the other dragonet. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I know him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sandstone!” she shouted suddenly as the pieces fell into place, turning and throwing her wings around the SandWing's neck. He hesitated for a second before hugging her back, a goofy smile spreading across his face as he did. Her heart soared. “I can't believe I didn’t recognize you!” Copper sputtered after a moment, leaning back and looking over her friend again. “What are you doing all the way out here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone grinned. “Well, I recognized you,” he said, blushing a little and shuffling his talons before meeting Copper’s eyes again. “It, uh, looked like you were in trouble back there, so I thought maybe I could help you out cause we're friends and all.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks. As you can see, I probably needed it…” Copper tilted her head at him, a small thought forming in her mind as she glanced at her returned treasure. “So…here, can you still see me?” she asked the other dragonet, sliding the bracelet off of her wrist, then back onto it again while watching him for a reaction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nothing. Sandstone stared at her, eyebrows drawn together in confusion. “Yeah?” He frowned. “I mean, why wouldn’t I? I mean...you're not exactly the most--” suddenly he cut himself off, eyes widening. “--wait a minute, are </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> what all the other Outclaws were freaked out about!?” he cried, pointing at her with a talon. “I can't believe it! I </span>
  <em>
    <span>heard</span>
  </em>
  <span> some of them talking about some kind of monster, said that you went invisible, right in front of them! I thought they’d gone crazy, or that maybe they'd gotten drunk or something! But you were </span>
  <em>
    <span>real</span>
  </em>
  <span>!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper frowned, twisting the copper band around and around her wrist and hardly registering Sandstone's exclamations. “Weird…” she muttered, still thinking, before slowly looking up again at her friend. “I mean, I stopped being invisible when I dropped it and they chased me, except a bunch of them could see me before too.” She sighed. “Now it's on again and you can still see me, so I don't know what to think.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone clamped his mouth shut and eyed the bracelet with wide eyes, tail twitching anxiously as if he was wondering whether it had been such a good idea bring the bracelet to Copper after all. “Y-You think it’s...i-it’s enchanted?” he stuttered a moment later, taking a small step backwards as he did.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Like me?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper had never thought of it before, obvious as the possibility seemed now. She’d always known that an animus had cursed her so that she would never be able to fit in in the Sky Kingdom with her mother, a fact that had been drilled into her ever since she was a dragonet, but this? Copper had never even considered that something she owned might be enchanted as well. </span>
  <em>
    <span>How did I not think of it before?</span>
  </em>
  <span> she wondered as she stared down at the bracelet, partly scornful of her own obliviousness, partly curious as to how her mother had gotten ahold of such a piece of jewelry. The facts seemed painfully obvious now that she finally took the time to fit them together.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well…that does make sense,” she said after a long pause, tail twitching slightly. “I guess maybe my mother got it to protect me, you know? That seems like my mom. I can't believe she never told me though...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone nodded, but as he did Copper saw a flash of sadness cross his face. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He knows what happened to her, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she realized, chest tightening at the painful memories that thought caused. Copper quickly closed and reopened her eyes, chasing away the awfulness and trying to change what she was thinking about, but it was too late. A flicker of a memory warped through her stubborn thoughts; back to when her mother had shoved Beetle and Sandstone out of the cave to safety. At first she felt a wave of anger over her mother’s death and wanted to blame Beetle and Sandstone for it, though upon seeing the stricken look on the SandWing dragonet's face she wondered if he blamed himself for the accident as well. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Silence loomed over the two dragonets like a shadow. After a moment of thinking, Sandstone broke the quiet. “Well...I-It does make sense, like you said.” His voice, still about halfway between a squeak and a rumbling growl, rattled a little as he spoke. “It did feel sorta funny when I was carrying it, now that I think about it. I guess I just didn’t really pay attention to it because I thought I was being nervous or something.” Sandstone peered at Copper’s bracelet again as if he’d forgotten to be afraid of it, his black tongue flickering in and out of his mouth. For a moment it looked like the other dragonet was going to say something, but then he firmly clamped his jaw shut and looked away.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Wait a minute.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper broke away from wondering about where Fly could have gotten an animus-touched bracelet, looking over at Sandstone again. “Where’s Beetle?” she asked suddenly. She'd never seen the burly dragonet more than a few steps away from his mother's wing during the trades, and yet here he was out in the middle of the desert by himself. Something about that didn't feel right at all. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Please tell me she's alright. Please tell me they didn't kill her or imprison her or--</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Rather than being worried, however, Sandstone only shrugged. “She’s at home, probably worried by now I guess. I might need to head back, but don’t worry about her, Copper. They never found out about her and trading with your mom. Fly saved us--the Outclaws never figured out that it was her.” </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They never found out about her. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Panic and fear jolted through Copper's body as the words settled in. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no! </span>
  </em>
  <span>She drew in a choked breath, covering her face with her talons in horror. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I told Cactus that I was looking for Beetle! They know! They know, and all because I was stupid! Why couldn’t I have just thought about what I was doing!? What if I just killed the only friend I had!? What if they hurt Beetle!? What if they hurt her and it’s ALL MY FAULT!?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>
      <br/>
    </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper grabbed Sandstone’s talons, and he froze when he saw the look of sheer terror flooding across her face. “Sandstone, your mother's in danger!” she cried. “I told them that I was looking for Beetle, and Cactus saw me! She knows that I’m the monster from the mountain--I fought off that other SandWing! They probably know all about what your mother did for us now!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Coyote!” Sandstone hissed, and a shudder ran through his wings as he said the name. “It must have been Coyote. I didn’t see him at the fight--I didn't really see it at all, but he came in later with some scars that only a SkyWing could have made.”  He swallowed, gripping Copper’s talons harder. “Don’t worry,” he said softly, meeting her gaze for a moment before dropping her talons and turning to look at where he'd come from. “If I hurry, I think I can make it to her in time. You could stay, I'll come get you...If the Outclaws won't help, I could go to Queen Thorn, I bet she’ll help us. Or maybe she won't. I'll figure something out. I'm sure...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper shook her head, stopping the SandWing's train of thought with a flick of her wing. “No way,” she answered, tucking her wings around her small body in a futile attempt to hide herself. “I can't just stay out here until you come back. I'll get picked up by another patrol, and what if you can't find me later? I'd starve out here, and I have nowhere else to go...” Copper's gaze shifted down towards the sand at her talons, her voice faint. “Please let me come.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone squinted at her for a moment, thinking, before the sheer brilliance of her scales forced him to look away again. “Yeah,” he said after a moment. “I guess I know how you feel. Maybe if we circle around once we get close, we could find some guards that haven’t heard about you yet. And maybe they'll listen to us if we try to explain everything...” Her friend seemed a bit skeptical, but his willingness surprised Copper. “I mean, there’s no way that I really could have left you here anyways,” he added quickly, glancing back in the direction of the Scorpion Den. “Fly meant a lot to my mom, and that means you too. She went back the day after the attack, but you were gone and she’s been mourning your death and Fly’s ever since.” His eyes brightened a little. “She’ll be really happy to find out that you’re okay, Copper.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The SandWing dragonet glanced up at the sun, which was just beginning to slip towards the horizon on their left. “It’s getting close to nightfall,” he muttered to himself, shaking his head. “I think we can head there after dark and get in the back way. Only Outclaws are supposed to get in that way and no one else knows about it, but I’m sure they’ll let you in too 'cause you're with me and it's a sort of emergency.” He paused for a moment, glancing up at the sky as though thinking. “Maybe…I think we can probably start heading that way now, towards the Scorpion Den,” he said after a moment. “But as soon as you’re able to see it we’ll have to try and hide you again. The patrols shouldn't be able to catch us if we do it right.” Again there was an edge of skepticism to his voice, but Sandstone still seemed willing enough to try. </span>
  <em>
    <span>They must have been really upset when they thought I was gone too, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper realized, </span>
  <em>
    <span>he seems awfully relieved. I wonder how Fly and Beetle met, to know each other so well and care for each other like that. I thought dragons didn't really make friends. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Her heart warmed at the thought of another dragon, even if it was a SandWing, that would welcome her home with open wings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright.” Copper looked at Sandstone, then quickly added, “thank you.” The other dragonet just nodded in reply, nervously looking back out at the horizon again. Gratefulness surged through Copper's chest, and the corner of her mouth quirked into a smile. Without him, she wouldn't have had a chance out here at all. Together, they still had little chance, but Sandstone clearly wasn't going to let that stop him. He glanced over Copper with and slowly spread one sandy wing, lifting and maneuvering it so that it rested over her head and body and hid her from the skies--and any dragons--overhead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper followed suit and tried to help make it easier for her reflective scales to be hidden, tucking her wings and tail as close as possible to her body and hunching over so that she took up as little space as possible. Even though the Sandstone was rather large and Copper quite tiny, a bit of a copper color poked out here and there around the edges of the Sandstone's wing. The camouflage certainly wasn’t perfect, but it was the best they could do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You ready?” Sandstone's voice was a bit muffled from under his wing, and Copper realized a moment later that he couldn't see her nodding.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I'm ready,” she stated, keeping her head bent down so that her snout didn't poke out into the sunlight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright.” The SandWing shuffled his other wing, flexed the one above Copper, and abruptly began marching forward across the sand. At first Copper had a difficult time matching her friend's pace, tucked away like she was and slipping and sliding over the unfamiliar slopes of the dunes, but eventually she figured out how to dig her claws into the sand and angle her body against the tilting slope like Sandstone did so that she wouldn't slide and fall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Silence hung like a cloud over the pair as they walked, both too immersed in their own worries and fears to say anything to each other. The rest of the world around them was deathly quiet too; the sun blazed overhead and Copper could hear nothing but the sounds of their talons sinking into the scorching sand as they walked. No other living things seemed to exist at all in every direction--it was just her, Sandstone, and the dunes. Back in the rainforest the sounds of birds and insects and chattering monkeys would fill any silence, but here everything was different, so different from her home. So much more vast, so much more dry…so much more empty. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her throat was starting to burn. Copper's talons ached from plunging them into the burning sand with every step, but she refused to complain no matter how much they hurt. At least she had some shade; Sandstone had nothing at all to protect him from the blazing sun, although he didn’t seem bothered by that at all. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well, of course it wouldn't bother him, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He </span>
  </em>
  <span>is</span>
  <em>
    <span> a SandWing, after all.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper had always thought that she'd love the desert, having always loved being in the sun and the heat, but struggling up and down miles of dunes under the midday sun quickly made her change her mind. This wasn't warm at all--this was burning, scorching, parching, terribly </span>
  <em>
    <span>hot.</span>
  </em>
  <span> It was like the very earth was on fire here, every step plunging her talons into flames instead of sand. Copper's tongue hung limply from the side of her mouth, pain slicing at her lungs with each breath of the hot dry air, but her stubbornness kept her from asking Sandstone to stop so they could rest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“AHA!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s thoughts quickly turned from the heat and switched to a startled terror as the shout echoed across the sand. She yelped and Sandstone suddenly broke away from her, pouncing on something a few feet away in the sand. There was a small struggle as he stabbed his talons into the dune while something tried to get away, but a second later the SandWing dug his snout in and yanked a tiny lizard out of the sand. He looked back at Copper, giving her a sheepish look when he realized how startled she looked. Muttering something unintelligible around the little lizard, he turned and trotted back over to Copper, spreading a wing back over her once more and dropping the carcass at her talons. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry for scaring you,” he mumbled upon realizing that he could talk again without the lizard in his mouth. “You...um, you can have it. I mean, if you like them. If you don’t I could probably eat it I guess, though I don’t know what else I could get you besides lizards...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper found herself grinning. She stretched her neck down towards the sand and snapped up the little creature in her jaws. The bones crunched oddly between her teeth and there was even less meat to it than she thought there would be, but it still tasted good after more than an entire day without anything to eat. Swallowing the meat, she nudged Sandstone with her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it,” she told him. “Scaring me, I mean. That was really cool how you caught it.” Copper paused for a second, sneaking a glance at Sandstone’s face form under her wing. He was blushing a dark red clear from his cheekbones to the tip of his snout, which was now pointed towards the ground and away from Copper so she couldn’t really see. He looked surprisingly embarrassed.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Is he not used to being complimented? </span>
  </em>
  <span>She wondered, turning to face forwards again so that she could see where she was going. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe I can help with that. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper glanced at her friend again. “Hey, Sandstone?” She grinned a little as his head snapped around to face her, but quickly hid it. “Do you think you could teach me how to hunt those lizards like you do? I mean, it might be a good idea with us being in the desert and all, and there isn’t much else to do while we’re walking.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her request seemed to catch him off guard and Sandstone blinked in surprise, but then he suddenly smiled and nodded his head. “I’d love to show you how to do it! I mean, I wasn’t sure if you were serious cause Mamba says I’m a terrible hunter all the time, says I’m too clumsy and loud, but it’d be real fun to show you how to catch the lizards.” Excited, the SandWing’s tail twitched back and forth like a cat’s as he hurried on a bit faster, forcing Copper to do the same unless she wanted to be left behind where she couldn’t be camouflaged. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At first Copper was excited to learn how to hunt a new kind of prey, but after nearly half an hour of speed walking she wondered if Sandstone had forgotten about his promise altogether or had simply abandoned it in favor of getting home and didn’t think to tell her. It seemed possible that the lizards might have just been scarce as well, but Sandstone didn’t even seem be looking at the sand where they’d be if they were even around. Copper was almost ready to repeat her question for the sake of having something to think about besides her burning throat and talons, but right when she opened her mouth the SandWing abruptly stopped without any warning, bringing himself to a halt so quickly that Copper bit back a yelp as she dug her talons into the sand to try and stop as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right there,” Sandstone suddenly whispered, gingerly pointing at a patch of sand with his free wing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wh--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shh! You’ll scare it!” The Sandwing held up a claw to his lips and Copper blinked, confused, running her eyes over what looked to be a completely normal patch of sand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is it?” she finally hissed him, unable to stop the impatience that had seeped into her voice. “I don’t--” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper suddenly stopped herself before she could say anymore, clamping a talon over her mouth and staring at where Sandstone had pointed in amazement. A thin line of sand appeared to be moving across the dune, scattering tiny grains everywhere as it gradually inched its way towards where the two dragonets were sitting.  Sandstone grinned at Copper, seemingly unperturbed by her irritation. “Go ahead,” he murmured, nudging her. “You can do it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper waited. The line of sand inched a little closer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“YAAAARGGH!!!” Trying to copy what she'd seen Sandstone do Copper suddenly lunged forwards, stabbing her claws into the sand where she thought she had seen the lizard and quickly closing her fists so it wouldn't escape. Something wriggled in her talons, and before Copper realized what had happened the lizard was gone. She wiggled her claws, realized they were empty, and let out a disappointed huff before sitting back in the sand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s alright,” Sandstone spoke up behind her, his voice oddly gentle and encouraging. Even Fly had never cheered her on like this. “The first time is always the hardest. You’ll get one soon enough, I promise.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper turned to look at him, then nodded a little.  “I’ll give it another shot,” she decided.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone chuckled, spreading his wing over Copper’s back again as she made her way back towards him. “You'll get it,” he repeated, beginning to lead Copper again towards the yet-unseen walls of the Scorpion Den.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two dragonets spent the rest of the afternoon looking for lizards, Sandstone pointing them out at first for Copper to see until she learned how to recognize the signs herself. Just like the SandWing had promised she did catch a few, though Copper didn't really feel hungry enough to eat any of them after the second lizard and let them go. Sandstone seemed a bit surprised, but after catching one for himself he didn’t eat anymore lizards either. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After one of Copper’s catches, Sandstone suddenly put out a talon to stop her and halted himself, squinting at the horizon where the sun was just beginning to dip down towards the earth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There,” he said finally, pointing to something far-off in the distance. Copper squinted at it, realizing after a moment that something dark and solid rose up against the horizon where her friend had indicated. “The Scorpion Den,” Sandstone explained, glancing over at her with a slightly worried expression. “I think we ought to stop and wait here until after sunset, just to be safe. I don't know what I'd tell the patrols if we were spotted.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And there's no doubt we'd be spotted, thanks to me.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper let out a sigh of frustration, but Sandstone must’ve seen the look on her face because he quickly spoke up again. “Hey, no problem,” the SandWing added swiftly. “I’m pretty tired anyways, aren’t you? We can rest here in the shade of one of these dunes, then we’ll go the rest of the way as soon as it's dark. We'll go faster if we're flying.” He smiled a little. “And when we get there, my mom will protect you, Copper. She'd never have left you if she knew you were alive.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper took a moment to allow the words to sink in, then nodded slowly “Thanks, Sandstone,” she told him in a near-whisper, remembering something about telling Polar something very similar the night before. Only now, she was the lost one rather than the nervous little IceWing, and Sandstone was the one who was helping her find a place to hide. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re welcome.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper glanced up, smiling a little, and her friend returned the grin with a little spark of happiness rising in his ebony eyes. Sandstone caught her gaze for a moment then looked away, turning and leading Copper back down to the base of the dune and settling down in the sand. He took a moment to make himself comfortable, then invited Copper over with a tilt of his head and moved his wing so that it rested over her back once more. He looked like he wanted to say something, but then his eyes fluttered and the SandWing's head slowly came to rest on his talons instead. He yawned once, twice, looked at Copper one last time with an expression that seemed to resemble apology, and closed his eyes. Within minutes, the SandWing was asleep, snoring so loudly that Copper knew it would be impossible for her to do the same. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, she looked out across the desert as the sun slowly sank down towards the horizon, thinking over the past few days in a jumble of emotion and memory. Apprehension tugged at the corners of her mind, but now there was appreciation too, thanks to Sandstone, Polar, and even Mamba. Without them, Copper knew that things could be worse; much, much worse, and she was grateful for all that had been done for her. So much had happened in the past few days, and something told her that there was much more to come in these next few as well, even tonight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally Copper allowed her eyes to close, thinking of all the dragons she had come to know and care about ever since her mother's death. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Polar.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Mamba. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Sandstone</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Beetle…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper inhaled sharply, trying not to let herself cry. Not here. Not in front of that burly SandWing dragonet, sweet and kind as he was. An Outclaw could never see her cry. She forced down the sobs that were clawing up her throat and opened her eyes, focusing her blood-red irises upon Sandstone before her gaze shifted upwards. Far up in the darkening sky Copper saw that two of the moons had already climbed up overhead, and the horizon was beginning to turn a deep shade of violet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Was Polar looking at one of those moons now, thinking about her and his escape?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Or was he dead?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Violently Copper shook her head, willing away that awful thought with a snort. Beside her, Sandstone stirred, yawning and lifting his head to look at her. “Is it dark enough?” he asked groggily, lifting a talon to rub his eyes. His tail scraped through the sand behind him as he struggled to stand, but somehow he managed to keep it from scratching Copper or himself as he shook out his wing, then pulled it close. He knew that the extra camouflage was no longer needed, even without an answer from her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She decided to speak up anyways. “Looks like it to me,”  Copper stated, spreading her own wings out and snapping them back again in the growing darkness. No glimmer. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Perfect.</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Yeah, we’re good, I think. Lead the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone spread his wings out to their fullest extent and leaped up into the air, Copper following him closely though still trying to stay a respectful distance behind. No way was she going to accidentally stab herself on that venomous tail so close to freedom and even victory, and she didn't want to accidentally tire Sandstone out by going too fast either. As the naturally faster flyer, she had to let the SandWing pick the pace for them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The dragonets flew for a long time in silence. Copper’s wings occasionally flashed when they caught just so in the moonlight, like tiny sparks of lightning, though the reflection was scarcely dangerous at night and Copper allowed herself to admire it rather than worrying over anyone seeing it.  Sandstone seemed to be thinking, so she left the other dragonet alone as well, watching the walls of the Scorpion Den slowly become larger and larger in the growing darkness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just as the third moon broke over the horizon, Sandstone glanced back and motioned for Copper to come fly alongside him. She did, easily catching up to the other dragonet, and giving him a curious look. A moment of silence ensued while the SandWing seemed to be struggling with something he wanted to say, and Copper waited patiently for her friend to find his tongue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” Sandstone said suddenly. Confusion flickered over Copper’s face as she tried to understand what he was thanking her for, and when the SandWing realized she didn't catch what he meant he quickly spoke up again. “I mean, I can’t thank Fly for saving us, but I saw you go after them,” Sandstone explained. “You probably saved our lives with what you did. I owe you a lot.” He looked at her, and Copper stared back, dumbfounded by what he had said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I wasn’t thinking about that…” she finally managed to answer a few minutes later, heart throbbing. Three moons, it was hard not to cry. “All I could think was that my mom was gone and there was nothing I could do and I just...I just...I mean--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, it’s okay.” Sandstone's voice was gentle. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” The sand-colored dragonet brushed Copper’s wingtips gently with his and she sniffed, scratching at a tear with her talon as it rolled down her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I miss her so much,” Copper whispered, unable to speak for fear of completely breaking down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone looked like he didn’t know what to say, snout trembling slightly while he held his wing there next to hers, brushing it encouragingly before drawing back a little. “I’m so sorry,” he answered, his voice unable to rise above a whisper as well. He looked sad, almost as sad as she felt, his teeth clenched as if he was trying to hold back sobs of his own. Before long, however, Copper noticed tears sliding down Sandstone's face anyways. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I miss her too,” was all he could say, sniffling and wiping a tear away before becoming quiet once more. Copper decided not to say anything more as well, reaching out to brush Sandstone's wingtips with hers like he had done for her. He smiled weakly at her, turned away, and the rest of their journey to the Scorpion Den was in silence. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Nearly an hour later Sandstone began descending toward the dunes once again, Copper following suit until they reached the very edge of the Scorpion Den and landed in the cool sand a short walk from the entrance. There was another gate here like the one Copper had seen earlier when the patrol had taken her to Mamba, but this one was much smaller than the first one had been. The gatekeeper also looked like she was half asleep as the two approached her, eyes halfway closed while her tail slowly stirred the sand in a circle in front of her talons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone approached first, then Copper, and she stayed just behind the much bigger dragonet as he lead her slowly towards the guard. She kept her wings tucked nearly by her sides, head low to the ground and eyes anxiously wide.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jararacussu!” The SandWing, a sort of light greyish-brown in color, jerked upright as Sandstone called her. She looked surprised at first to see the younger SandWing, then her eyes narrowed as she spotted Copper standing nervously behind him. Copper cast a frightened look at her friend, who took another step forward and swallowed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jara, this is my--”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  
  <span>“It’s the monster!” the SandWing suddenly shrieked as she seemed to recognize Copper. Before either dragonet realized what was happening Jararacussu bolted forwards, knocking Sandstone sideways and slamming into Copper head-on. Copper quickly found herself pinned beneath the guard's long talons, and the SandWing seemed to be putting her full weight into the trick so that Copper had nowhere to go--not that she could anyways. Her head was spinning too much to fight, and she struggled to pull air in now that it had been knocked out of her lungs. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What just happened?</span>
  </em>
  <span> she wondered, dazed as she stared up into a pair of glittering black eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ha, you’ve gone invisible!” Jararacussu sneered, carelessly poking Copper's snout with one claw. “Too late for you, monster!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just then something knocked the guard sideways a little, and Copper realized that had Sandstone had flung himself at the larger SandWing in an attempt to save her. Jararacussu was so much bigger than him, however, and she knocked him aside with one wing as though he were little more than a fly. Sandstone hit the ground and shakily tried to get up, but it was far too late for him to do anything. Lifting her head, the guard let out a roar loud enough all of Pyrrhia to hear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Monster! The monster has attacked us! It’s the monster!” she shrieked into the sky. “Guards! It's the monster!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s ears were still ringing as three more SandWings appeared by the gate, one holding a chain in his talons while the other two held nothing at all. All three dragons looked furious; the one with the chain bolted towards Copper while the other two tackled Sandstone. He was no better match for them than he'd been for Jararacussu, and in a moment they had him pinned to the ground where he was shaking and thrashing and trying to fight them off with all his might. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait!” he cried. “It’s me, Sandstone! I’m with Beetle!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jararacussu’s black eyes turned to him while the SandWing with the chain approached Copper a bit uneasily, as if unsure as to what to do. “Ah, Beetle,” she smirked. “Beetle, who also currently happens to be in prison for aiding and abetting a criminal.” Sandstone's face paled and he looked like he'd been hit in the gut with a SeaWing tail; the guard only shook her head in disgust before looking down at Copper. “And you. SkyWing.” She jostled Copper’s wings painfully. “If you want your little friend to live, then I suggest holding real still.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper hardly dared to breathe as the other SandWing came over, touching Copper’s face with his talon before sliding his claws down to her neck. Once he found the part of her neck just beneath the snout he looped the chain around so tightly that she could hardly breathe, then blasted two links together with a spurt of fire. Copper held back a scream, instead hissing with pain as the hot metal seared her scales. The chain was much too tight for her to ever wiggle out of it, so tight that Copper had to tilt her head back just so that she could breathe properly. Even then, it was much harder to take in air than it had been before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not getting away, are you little monster?” A length of chain still spilled off the loop around Copper’s neck--it looked like it had been much longer than it needed to be, and Jararacussu grabbed it in one talon to use as a handle to pull Copper after her. Releasing her wings, the guard used the chain to force Copper to her feet, then dragged her mercilessly towards the gate.  </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I'm going to choke and die,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper thought, but somehow she managed to keep up with the vicious SandWing as they headed through the gate and into the city. Behind them, the SandWing that had brought the chain followed, and then the two guards that were holding Sandstone brought up the rear. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mother!” he whimpered hoarsely as they were dragged through the gate. “Mother!” His voice was choked with sobs, and one of the guards carrying him smacked him in the face with his wing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up,” he snarled, spitting in Sandstone's face. “One more word and you’ll never see your mother again.” The little SandWing's eyes went wide, and he shut his mouth so hard his snout trembled as the two dragonets were dragged down street after empty street in the growing darkness. Stars were beginning to show in the sky overhead, and the third moon was just peering over the horizon. Mud walls and huts loomed on either side of Copper as she followed Jararacussu, and long shadows zigzagged across the path that the moons had illuminated for them. They didn’t go to the oasis this time, and took a different direction that brought them to a tall building that shot out of the sand close to the edges of the city. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jararacussu glanced back at the two guards carrying Sandstone, then motioned for one that had held the chain to step forward. He obeyed, slithering past Copper and unlocking the door before she and Sandstone were shoved inside. Chains sprouted up from a stony floor with no sand on it, and the dragonets were pushed towards them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold still,” a guard commanded. Neither Copper nor Sandstone moved, but Copper felt her panic rising as metal rings were snapped shut around her talons, snout, and several on her tail. Clips held her wings together over her head--the positions of the metal pieces were at such angles that it would have been impossible to get free without aid of her talons, which were now attached to the floor with a short length of chain. She could hardly move when her tail was tied down, and her snout and neck were clipped to the floor as well. She couldn't speak. She could barely breathe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whirling around, Jararacussu and the other guards exited without a sound, leaving Copper and Sandstone in the dark room without even a window or a crack in the wall to let in some light. Copper couldn’t even see her own talons, and the chain around her neck painfully restricted her breathing as she turned her head from side to side, trying to figure out what else might be in the room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After her eyes adjusted to the darkness, all Copper could determine was the door that they’d come through, or at least what she </span>
  <em>
    <span>thought</span>
  </em>
  <span> was the door. It was impossible to see anything; everything around her seemed pitch-black and empty, even where she knew Sandstone was standing. A part of her wished she had eyes like a SeaWing so that she could see in the dark.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Where are we? </span>
  </em>
  <span>she wondered. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Is this what a prison is like?</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>The chains next to her rattled, and Copper realized that her friend was moving around next to her, probably lying down to sleep. Who knew what would come tomorrow, and there wasn't much else to do in the dark room where words were impossible. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Sandstone probably knows where we are</span>
  </em>
  <span>, she thought, listening to the chains sigh and groan while Sandstone settled down on the hard floor. Copper craned her neck, trying to catch even the tiniest speck of light with her eyes. Nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Three moons, what she would have given to be able to speak!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She wanted to tell Sandstone that she was sorry. Sorry for getting them caught. Sorry for not letting him go alone. Sorry for messing everything up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She wanted to tell her friend that things would be okay.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She wanted Sandstone to know how much she cared about him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And most of all, she really, </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>wanted to know that things would be alright after all.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Copper didn’t even realize that it was morning until Jararacussu threw the door open. It banged sharply against the wall, and both dragonets winced and looked away from the bright hot light pouring through the doorway. The brilliance illuminated the dragons who stood outside so that they appeared to be glowing, but the effect made them no less frightening and Copper instinctively backed away as far as the chains would allow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two SandWings guards, different from the ones that had brought the dragonets in the night before, were standing behind Jararacussu, who looked about as nasty as she had previously. Looking over Copper and Sandstone as if they were no more than scavengers, she motioned for the guards to enter with a flick of her wing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“General Mirage wants to see these two,” she growled as the other two SandWings stepped forward to unlock the dragonets’ chains, leaving only the bands around their snouts and the clips on their wings. “Hyena's busy so she’s ordered that he see you two instead.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Hyena?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper watched as the guard took the chain hooked around her neck, looking a bit confused as she did. The SandWing seemed to be able to see her, Copper realized, as her eyes focused easily on her whenever she moved. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She doesn’t want to hurt me. Is that it? They can only see me if they don’t want to hurt me?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper glanced down at the links encircling her neck where the metal had rubbed her scales raw overnight, scratching it with a claw and wincing at the pain that resulted from it. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Not that it matters now anyways. I wonder who General Mirage is. Maybe he'll be able to see me.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>As she was led towards the door, Copper glanced at the SandWing holding her chain. She was a very light yellow in color with large round eyes, bearing few scars on her slender frame. She looked somewhat nervous and a bit uncertain, but otherwise said nothing as SkyWing and SandWing prisoner both were pulled towards the door. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Thank the moons she's more gentle than Jara is, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper thought, grateful for how loosely the chain around her neck was held. Jararacussu eyed the dragonets suspiciously as they exited, then turned with a snort to lead them into the city. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s guard moved much more slowly than Jararacussu did, and after only a minute of walking the SandWing in front turned and snarled at them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Move it, Sagebrush!” She snapped, bristling. Sagebrush cringed away from the lead guard, but glanced at Copper and motioned for her to pick up the pace with her. She obeyed, and to her relief the chain around her neck remained loose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they trekked through the city, Copper realized that they were moving into the center of the Scorpion Den, towards the oasis that she’d been brought to last time. The same stalls greeted the dragonets as they trekked down the streets, lined up in neat-but-not-so-neat rows and topped by torn canopies. The same smells rose up through the heat, acrid and sharp. The same shrieks and roars bounced around the rows in endless echoes. The same skinny dragons were huddled in their dirty corners, hissing and backing away from the feared faces of the Outclaws. Everything was as it had been before, and somehow it was almost comforting to a dragonet lost far from home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper stayed right next her guard as they walked in the searing heat, anything so that awful chain wouldn’t be tightened again, and Sandstone marched sullenly behind his guard just after them. The other SandWing seemed a bit rougher than Sagebrush was, with a few missing teeth and scars etched into his neck and sides, but he still wasn’t nearly as nasty as Jararacussu was. Copper wondered if Sandstone knew either of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After about a half hour of marching through the streets the group reached the oasis, and Copper recognized Cactus’ tent off to their right as Jararacussu led them past it. An IceWing and a SandWing looked like they were trying to repair a hole in the top, the SandWing holding a length of cloth in his hand while the IceWing seemed to be attempting to measure the hole that Copper had left in the surface. She tried not to snicker as they walked past it, feeling almost a bit triumphant for once in all the trouble she’d caused, even if it had been unintentionally. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Wonder if they're planning for that. Probably not, they left my wings clipped up. Three moons I wish I could stretch them. They're starting to hurt.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>They stopped at another tent, exactly the same as Cactus’ had been though without the same hole in the roof, and Copper noticed Sandstone trying not to look at it as they stopped a few feet away from the entrance. She watched as her friend nervously stabbed the sand with his talons, then looked over the structure and tried to hide her own anxiety over what was to come. Both Copper and Sandstone’s guards awkwardly stood next to them, holding their chains while Jararacussu stepped inside with an expression that was somewhere between annoyed and furious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper strained her ears, trying to catch at least something from inside, but she heard nothing more than a few whispers at what seemed to be the far end of the tent. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Well, </span>
  </em>
  <span>that's</span>
  <em>
    <span> annoying,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought, biting back a grumble. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Do they expect their prisoners to be listening in on them or something? How many prisoners do they even have? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Sagebrush must have seen the questioning look on Copper’s face though, because as soon as she was sure that Jararacussu had gone she tapped her on the shoulder and gestured to the tent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s General Mirage’s tent,” she said quietly. “They tend to take the more troublesome dragons and problems to him, especially if Cactus can’t solve them herself. Hyena trusts him and Briar more. I heard he was pretty mad when he heard about you two…” She shifted uncomfortably, then froze as Jararacussu barreled back out of the tent and glared at all four dragons </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go, get in there,” she snarled. “General Mirage wishes to see them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a short pause, then the guards moved to obey, pulling the dragonets inside with them. The tent flap was pushed back, and as Copper got her first look of the place she realized that General Mirage was even more terrifying than Cactus was, something that she did not know was possible until her blood red eyes found the general's dark, ink black ones. He was much smaller than Cactus was, only a little bigger than her mother had been, but the authoritative way in which he held himself and the snarl on his face said that he was not to be underestimated despite his smaller stature. There was a claw missing on one of his front talons, and a nasty scar twisted around his snout to reveal several chipped fangs and a couple that were missing entirely. Mirage's tail rested by his side, and his wings were folded neatly over his spine by his back talons. His scales were covered in mottled pale brown and yellow shades, with darker tips of brown around his snout, horns, and crest so that he looked very much like a splatter of sandy color. The general turned to glare at the dragons as they entered, though surprisingly Copper detected something soft in his gaze, like he was more curious than angry at the two dragonets standing before him. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Funny,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she told herself, intrigued by the gentleness she thought she saw in the SandWing, </span>
  <em>
    <span>he's the scariest dragon I've seen yet but not at the same time.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jara, let them speak,” Mirage ordered before they were even all the way inside. Jararacussu nodded obediently, but as soon as she turned away from the general her face lit up with a bitter scowl. She approached Sandstone first, roughly removing the band from his snout before it was yanked off of Copper's as well. Neither of their guards moved. Jararacussu glared at them one more time before stepping back with the two rings, moving to the edge of the tent and watching the dragonets while they slowly opened and closed their mouths to make sure that everything was in order. Copper could tell where the band had been around Sandstone’s snout as it had rubbed his scales raw and left a ring of lighter color there, and she guessed that she looked the same way.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Three moons my mouth hurts. And I'm so thirsty. It's been forever since I got something to drink. I wonder if they'd let me have some water?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who are you?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s head snapped up when she realized that Mirage was talking to her, her eyes widening slightly as she saw that his gaze was focused perfectly on hers.</span>
  <em>
    <span> So, someone around here </span>
  </em>
  <span>can</span>
  <em>
    <span> see me after all, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought, surprised.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Mamba could, of course. And Polar. And Sandstone. And Sagebrush. But still not most of them. I'm still invisible to almost everyone for some reason. I don't get it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The two SandWing guards displayed opposite reactions upon seeing Copper. One of them stared at the chain around her neck in mild dismay and confusion; the other had a calm expression and focused on her blood-red eyes as easily as Mirage had. Unlike with Cactus, though, there were few SandWings inside this tent to test reactions on, and hardly any confusion whatsoever over things. Maybe Cactus had explained to them that she really was there after all, even if they couldn't see her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ahem.” Mirage cleared his throat, sharp eyes narrowing slightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oops.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper swallowed nervously. “My...um, my name is Copper,” she stammered, voice shaking with anxiety and cracking from lack of water. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Three moons have mercy.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The general nodded, eyeing her scales with what seemed to be a small level of amusement. “I see,” he said. Then he raised his eyebrows. “So...you’re the monster that’s been stirring up the Outclaws.” His gaze flickered to the chains around Copper’s neck. “You don’t look very monstrous.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s invisible!” The SandWing behind him cried. General Mirage turned and gave the guard a strange look, and he cowered in fear, eyes darting back and forth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t see her?” he asked. Quickly, the dragon shook his head, unable to look up and meet the general's gaze. Mirage turned to Copper again. “Do you know why he can’t see you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s knees shook, but finally she shook her head. “No...I…well no, I don’t,” she answered faintly, her voice scratching her throat like sandpaper. Mirage flicked a wing at Sandstone’s guard, who pulled him to the back of the tent so that Copper was left to face the general alone. Sandstone’s voice seemed to fail him, and he could only silently open and close his mouth as he was pulled away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why are you here?” Mirage questioned. His calmness was starting to unnerve Copper, but she already knew that answering honestly was the only way to do things here. Taking a deep breath, Copper straightened herself out and tried to shed her panic</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m here for help,” she said, coughing a little as her scratchy voice penetrated the room again. Copper half-expected the rowdy laughter that she’d heard telling Lithop the same thing, but Mirage only nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go on,” he said, gesturing to her with a wing. Behind him, Copper saw Mamba enter behind the general. He tilted his head at her, then grinned a bit. ‘Don’t worry,’ he mouthed, sitting down behind Mirage. ‘You'll be fine.’ At least, that was what Copper thought he was trying to tell her, and she certainly hoped that Mamba was right whatever he meant. He had helped her before when things went awry, maybe he would again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper decided that she felt a little better with the odd SandWing’s encouragement, and swallowed hard before attempting to speak again. “My...my mother was killed a few weeks ago by Outclaws who said she’d cheated on them. I...I don’t know what happened, but my mom had some friends here--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“--Beetle, right?” Mirage asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper nodded.  “Yes. Beetle was really nice to me, and I thought she would be willing to help...” she stared down at her talons, willing the tears away. Mirage’s stare never wavered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please sir,” Copper blurted out suddenly. “I have nowhere else to go, and the SkyWings would kill me if I ever tried to go to their kingdom, they don't like anyone who's different. Please, please help…” Sandstone tried to move closer to Copper as if he wanted to say something, but his guard held him back by the edge of the tent with a wing. The older SandWing seemed almost nervous, but stayed firm about keeping Sandstone in place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage glanced at Sandstone without a word, then back at Copper, thinking. The tent remained dead silent while the general considered what Copper had said, tail flicking back and forth across the sandy ground and sending the tiny grains flying. Copper waited silently, barely daring to breathe while she thought over what might happen if Mirage said no. Would they throw her in prison again? For how long? Or would they not bother with it and execute her instead?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, after a very long silence, Mirage spoke up. “Very well,” he stated, voice softer than before. “If you can make yourself useful, I suppose I can allow you to stay.” Then his eyes narrowed. “But I want no, I repeat </span>
  <em>
    <span>no </span>
  </em>
  <span>shenanigans with your invisibility. Are we clear?” Copper wanted to protest, but kept her mouth clamped firmly shut and nodded instead. Maybe she'd have to part with her bracelet after all, though if it meant she could stay then she knew it was worth it, no matter how special her treasure was to her. She almost couldn't believe she was being allowed to stay, especially with all that had happened with Cactus before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage seemed to relax somewhat at her agreement, nodding slowly to himself. “Good,” he said. “We'll see about releasing Beetle in a moment, Sandstone.” He glanced out the flap, and Copper realized with a start that Jararacussu had disappeared from her place by the wall.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“JARARACUSSU!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Nevermind.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The dark SandWing poked her head inside, casting a nasty look at Copper before stepping into the room and stopping in front of the general. “Yes, Mirage?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage pointed at the chain around Copper’s neck with a talon. “Remove it,” he ordered. “Now. The rest of the binds as well.” Jara stared at Copper, shock spreading across her face, then seemed to snap out of it as she hurried over to carry out the general's command. Copper tilted her head upwards and stretched her neck to make the chain easier to remove, and as the guard fiddled with it Mirage's stare caught hers once more. “Also... SkyWing…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper, sir,” Copper said quickly, biting back a yelp of pain as she felt one of the links around her neck burning into her scales. But then suddenly it was gone, followed by the sound of chains clattering to the floor. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The general nodded, hardly appearing to notice Jararacussu at all while she moved on to unclip the clamps on Copper’s wings. “Yes, Copper. I am curious…” his talons twitched a bit as he looked at her, black eyes somehow hard and soft at once. “What was your mother’s name, Copper?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Immediately, Copper frowned. </span>
  <em>
    <span>My mother’s name? Why does he want to know her name? Did she really cheat them? Will he kill me if I tell him? Does he have a grudge against her? Mom always talked about some general she didn't like… Is it Mirage? Did they fight? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Her heart beat so fast she feared it would explode.</span>
  <em>
    <span> But I can’t lie! He’d know and I’d be dead anyways. I don't have a choice, do I? </span>
  </em>
  <span>There was no need to answer the last question. Copper swallowed yet again, then lifted her chin and looked Mirage in the eye.</span>
  <em>
    <span> I guess whatever happens happens. Not like there’s anything I can do about it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“My mother’s name is Fly,” she told the general. Then, she quickly added: “Why do you want to know?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To her surprise, General Mirage did not continue to question her in the same professional manner he had used previously. Instead eyes widened, eyelids fluttering rapidly in disbelief, and he stumbled back with a breathy “What?” as if he’d just been stabbed by a SandWing tail. The two guards that had been standing behind him rushed to his side, and Jararacussu looked up in surprise from where she was dragging Copper’s chain out the tent flap. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Should…Should I put it back?” she asked hesitantly, and for the first time Copper saw that she seemed uncertain as to what she should do. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Mirage coughed, waving a talon at Jararacussu. “No, no no. Stay back.” Still blinking, he folded his wings by his sides and cautiously stepped towards Copper, eyeing her up and down with an expression of disbelief. She froze in terror while the SandWing drew nearer, watching his black eyes as they examined her scales, up and down and across. Was this it? Was Mirage going to kill her now? Suddenly the general straightened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“EVERYONE OUT!” he bellowed, startling even Jararacussu where she still stood in confusion by the tent flap. Sandstone's guard tried to push him towards the door, but the smaller SandWing was having none of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER!” Sandstone shrieked, shoving his guard away with all his might and bolting towards Copper. He jumped in between her rigid body and Mirage, spreading his sandy-red wings wide so that nearly everything in front of her was blocked out. “You can’t hurt her!” he cried. “She's my friend! I won't let you!” The guards all froze in confusion, and everyone in the room turned to Mirage. The general seemed to be struggling to speak, but after a long while a saddened, scratchy voice echoed inside the tent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was a long time ago when my wife left.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>What?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Sandstone's wings lowered in confusion, and Copper saw a terrible look of sorrow upon the general’s face. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What is going on?</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“I almost forget what she was like, and that somewhere she had my dragonet out there with her.” Mirage sighed heavily. “I tried not to, but it was nearly impossible after four years, five years, six. I missed them both terribly, and I never thought…” he looked at Copper, his expression unfathomable. “I never thought that one day my dragonet would come home to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper thought her heart had stopped. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What!? But that can't be right…</span>
  </em>
  <span>A knot twisted in her throat; she couldn't breathe.</span>
  <em>
    <span> It's impossible…This is impossible...I'm a SkyWing… there's no way that this dragon…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mirage looked up, smiling faintly. “Oh Copper...you’re my daughter.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“WHAT!?” Sandstone looked like an even bigger cauldron of emotions than Copper was feeling. The guards exchanged hurried, anxious looks with each other, then turned away like they hoped to slip out of the tent unnoticed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No chance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh no you don’t!” Mirage reared up, wings flaring, his snake-like head whipping around the tent like a viper about to strike. His black eyes narrowed into slits, and after a moment of furious silence he motioned to the guard on his left with an angry flick of his tail. “I want Jararacussu, Sagebrush, and Adder in the prison. Now. I’ll decide what to do with them later.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Might want to toss in Lithop’s bunch as well, it was those morons that ‘caught’ her in the first place,” Mamba suddenly piped up with a grin, sticking his tongue out at Jararacussu who appeared to be trying to kill him with her fury-filled eyes alone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage turned to Mamba as the SandWing quickly pulled his tongue back in, putting on an innocent expression as well while locking eyes with the general. “Very well,” Mirage hissed. “Get them too. I want everyone who mistreated my daughter in prison at once.” He glared at second guard, who quickly got the message and took off like a shot. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sagebrush sighed and began to go with the other guards, but Copper shook her head. “Hey, wait a minute,” she broke in, trying not to sound rude and glancing nervously over at her father as she spoke.</span>
  <em>
    <span> My father. </span>
  </em>
  <span>The word felt weird in her head. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Think about it later. </span>
  </em>
  <span>“Please don't put Sagebrush in prison,” Copper pleaded. Sagebrush stopped and turned around in surprise, casting a look at Mirage as he narrowed his eyes at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” he growled. He didn’t say anything more. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because, uh, sir, she was really nice to me,” Copper replied shakily, hoping that she hadn't just made yet another dumb decision. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Not to mention the bonus of having literally met my dad just two minutes ago.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She also wasn't sure if she could call Mirage ‘Dad’ at all. Would it offend him? “She was just following Jararacussu’s orders, um, sir, this...this isn't her fault. Please?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Adder too,” Sandstone said suddenly. The guards all stopped. “I uh, sir, I mean,” the burly dragonet quickly added, and Copper nodded in agreement. Mirage looked about as shocked as if one of the dragons in the room had suddenly turned into a butterfly, staring at the two dragonets for what felt like a small, unbelievable eternity. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Is he going to listen to us? Did I take it too far?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper wondered. Several momentss later, however, the general shrugged and motioned to Adder and Sagebrush. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dismissed,” he told them sharply. “If my daughter wants you to be free, then I suppose freedom is yours.” Mirage’s eyes narrowed again. “Now get out of my sight before I change my mind.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sagebrush gave Copper a grateful look, then whirled around and sped through the tent flap with Adder right on her heels. Neither said a word to Mirage or the dragonets as they left, but Sagebrush's thankful expression said everything to Copper. The two remaining guards herded a furious Jararacussu out the other side of the tent, and Mamba watched it all with a wide grin on his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve been wanting to get back at her forever, you have no idea,” he chuckled as the SandWing’s tail disappeared under the cloth. Mirage just shook his head at the guard, then turned to Sandstone, who was still standing in front of Copper with drooped wings and an infinitely befuddled expression.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So...Sandstone, right?” the general questioned him. Mirage didn’t seem quite as threatening now that the guards were gone, and he appeared to have aged years in moments. Instead of an Outclaw, he just looked like an old and tired dragon, more like the normal father Copper had once thought she would have had. She allowed herself to relax a tiny bit, but Sandstone straightened when Mirage mentioned him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes sir,” he answered. “I live with Beetle. She's my mother.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Beetle…” Mirage frowned, then glanced over at Mamba. “That's right, I remember now. Go and bring her in.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba nodded, then disappeared out the tent flap with a flick of his barbed tail. Only Sandstone, Copper, and Mirage remained in the tent. Sandstone looked back at Copper, then scooted to the side so that he no longer separated the two and she could see her father again. He looked so the same as he had, but so different at the same time. The old general stood and slowly moved closer, question in his ink-black eyes. Copper watched him, tilting her head a little to the side. She wouldn’t run from him now, but she had to admit that there were a billion questions ramming against her skull for attention now that she knew this SandWing was her father.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage stopped, hesitating. Copper waited. He spread his wings slightly and looked at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“May I?” he whispered. Copper stared at him. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He wants to know if he can hug me.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She swallowed, then suddenly stood and rushed into her father's arms. Mirage's wings snapped wide, and before she knew it Copper was caught up in his warm, sand-colored scales. She threw her wings around Mirage's neck, choking back tears while it seemed her father had already given up on that. He hugged her tight for several moments, refusing to let go while tears plopped onto her scales from his face. Sandstone sat back in silence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dad,” Copper whispered, pressing her face into Mirage's shoulder with her eyes half-closed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper,” he whispered in her ear in return. There were tears in his eyes as the SandWing finally pulled back, lifting a talon and gently caressing Copper’s face. “Look at you, my darling, just like Fly.” He shook his head, then placed his talon on the ground again. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Just like Fly.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Tears crowded Copper’s eyes, and one slid down her snout at the sound of her mother's name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment Mirage looked like he was going to say more, but he was interrupted when a huge orange-yellow SandWing burst into the room through the tent flap. She swung her head around, spotted Sandstone, and hurtled into him, catching the dragonet up in her wings before anyone in the tent realized what had happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mom!” Sandstone shrieked through the small cloud of dust as he looked up, throwing his wings around his mother in elation over her return. The two hugged for a long moment, then Beetle pulled back one of her wings and motioned for Copper to join them with it. Copper glanced at her father, who nodded slightly as if to give her permission, then stood and jumped over to join the reunion. Beetle stretched out her other wing without hesitation as she neared, gently drawing Copper into the hug with herself and Sandstone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re okay!” Beetle whispered, holding Copper and Sandstone tightly in her great warm sandy wings. “Three moons, you’re okay.” There was silence in the tent for a moment, then all three dragons looked up when Mirage cleared his throat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know her,” he said. It was more of a statement than a question. Beetle nodded slowly, expression quickly becoming serious as her head bobbed up and down. “And you didn’t tell me?” Lines of anger crinkled and then gradually dissipated over the general’s face. “Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beetle’s back immediately straightened, and she stretched her neck up so that she could look Mirage in the eye while the dragonets remained cuddled beneath her wings. “I had to,” she answered quietly. “It was all I could do, Mirage. You and I both know how stubborn your wife was--” Both dragons winced at the word </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span>. “--she told me that if I even breathed a word to you of where she was, she would disappear and we’d never find her again.” Beetle sighed heavily, black eyes shining with sadness. “There was nothing I could do; Fly would have ended up killing herself if I didn't help.” She took a deep breath. “I did it for her, Mirage. I always did.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They told me Fly cheated.” The general's eyes remained hard. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beetle shook her head. “It's my fault,” she said. Copper thought she could hear the SandWing's voice shake, burying her snout into her wing as if to shut out all the bad in the world. Nonetheless she heard Beetle continue, her voice muffled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fly never could afford what we brought every week, but she needed what we brought and even though I tried to pay for it it wasn't enough. So I gave them to her, told her they were cheap. I didn't want Fly to worry, Mirage. If she'd known what I was doing...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper peeked out from under Beetle's wing, realizing that Mirage's face had softened quite a bit because of the other SandWing's explanation. “Yes...that does sound like my wife,” the general admitted after a moment. “I hoped...I hoped when you told me that she was dead that perhaps you were wrong...that maybe you were not my daughter and there was another Fly, but there’s really no mistaking it now.” He sighed, and Copper slipped from under Beetle’s wing to sit next to him, leaning into his shoulder. Mamba stood in the back, watching the entire exchange so silently that Copper didn't even know he was there until she happened to look right at him. His face didn't give away anything as usual, but when Copper caught his eye he winked at her before looking away again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can we be dismissed?” Sandstone suddenly piped up, glancing between Copper and Mirage before leaning into his mother’s embrace again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The general looked down at Copper, who stared back for a moment before Mirage’s eyes found Beetle’s again. “Beetle?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You and Sandstone are dismissed. You too, Mamba.” All three SandWings nodded respectfully, then turned to exit the tent. It was just Copper and the general. Mirage sighed, his face still sad, then motioned for Copper to follow him without a word. She watched him pull his wings back, then stood up to follow him outside.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Where’s he taking me?</span>
  </em>
  <span> She wondered.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Am I going home? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Her red eyes blinked hard at the word.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Home. That's such a funny word to associate with this place. SandWings and hot desert. This is my home? My actual home?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…” Mirage led Copper past a few tents and stopped at one, gently nudging her inside before he followed in behind. The tent was a nice one, large and cool with camel skins piled up in one corner along with a few different unknown devices scattered here and there on the tabletops as well as on the floor. A large pile of scrolls was heaped next to the skins, and near that there sat a small desk with ink and even more scrolls littered over the top. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Messy,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper thought, being careful not to step on anything important, </span>
  <em>
    <span>but it's nice. Feels like home, sort of.</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Um, where…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go ahead and sit wherever you’d like. I...I’m sorry it’s such a mess. Your coming wasn't exactly expected today.” Mirage rubbed his temple with a talon, then looked around and finally gestured to the skins with his barbed tail. “That's probably the best place to sit.” Copper nodded, then cautiously made her way over and sat down. The general tried to pile some of the odd devices away from the entrance to make the tent appear a little cleaner, but gave up after a moment and simply came to sit next to Copper instead. He actually looked nervous, and his tail kept twitching while she waited for him to say something. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, what, what happened with you and mom?” Copper suddenly blurted out. Immediately, her eyes widened as she realized what she’d just said, but it was too late to take anything back. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I did not just say that out loud. Please tell me I didn't just say that out loud. Please tell me I imagined saying that.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>But she had said it. General Mirage, however, looked only slightly surprised by her outburst. “I suppose I should explain that,” the SandWing sighed, sounding almost defeated. The general seemed so tired and old, and when Copper looked up at him he hesitantly wrapped a wing around her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here,” he whispered. Then he began to explain, keeping his wing around Copper’s shoulder as he spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your mother and I met many years ago, long before the end of the war was even in sight,” Mirage explained, settling down and staring out the tent flap and into the open sky. “We were both patrolling, I for Princess Burn and Fly for Queen Scarlet, when we first met in the forest far north of here. That was back when I served Burn; several months later Thorn took me in when I decided I didn’t want to fight anymore. Fly and I had spoken some with each other in secret after we met, and she happened to tell me that she was also tired of the war like I was. When I joined the Outclaws and Thorn, I invited her to come with me. I don't know what I expected, but a few days later she was here.” He smiled a little, black eyes sparkling as he remembered. “I recall  telling myself that she was the most beautiful dragon in all of Pyrrhia, and the more I got to know her the more I realized that I was in love. After several weeks of working with her on patrols and training the youngsters, I found out that she loved me too, three moons only know why. We decided to get married and did, right here in this tent, but for both our sakes we kept it all quiet. Because of the war all the tribes were much more tense with each other back then, and we didn’t want to have to put up with any trouble for our decision.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A few months later, Fly found out that she was with egg.” Finally Mirage looked down at Copper, and a grin stretched across his face. “That egg was you, Copper. You were going to hatch right there.” Mirage pointed to the skins with his barbed tail, sighing a little. “Fly hid your egg under there and was so, so determined to protect you from anything and everything in the world. I think she would have stayed right with you and not even eaten until you hatched had I not managed to coax her away while I guarded you myself. We liked to talk about you, Copper.” He smiled a little to himself. “I wanted to give you a frightening name, and I loved to tell Fly that you’d be one of the most frightening Outclaws ever to walk the desert. I hadn't been with the Outclaws for long, but Thorn trusted me and was always understanding towards hybrids like yourself anyhow.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hybrid!” Copper yelped, leaping to her feet. A thundercloud of thoughts suddenly stormed rampant across her mind, taking her breath away. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Hybrid! I'm a hybrid! How did I not realize it!? I'm not a freak! There's a reason for all this! I'm a hybrid!</span>
  </em>
  <span> “That’s it!” She whispered, looking at her father with shining blood-red eyes. “I’m not cursed after all! They didn't want to kick mother out of the Sky Kingdom! I'm just a hybrid!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage stared at her, startled out of his memories. “Cursed?” he asked, sounding surprised. “Of course not! Who would ever tell you such a thing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper stared at her four talons. The general glanced over them, but his worried expression quickly returned to his daughter. “Well…” Copper paused, hesitating. “I, um, well, mother did. She told me that an animus cursed my egg in order to get her out of the Sky Kingdom, but she never told me why. And she said you died trying to help her escape...I guess...I guess…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She didn’t want you to know about me at all?” Sadness slowly spread over Mirage's face as he realized what Copper’s words meant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” she whispered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage looked up, then shook his head. “No no, it’s not your fault,” he said quietly. “I just...I can’t believe your mother would hide that from you…especially after everything...” His wings shuddered. “I know...I know she was only trying to protect you, like she always was. That’s why she left, you know…” the general suddenly stopped, his head drooping. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dad?” Copper asked, leaning into Mirage's side. “Dad, are you okay?” Her father looked down at her, so, so sad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One night a dragon somehow got into our tent,” the SandWing's voice was hardly above a whisper. “He nearly destroyed the tent and your egg, but Fly somehow fought him off and he was gone by the time I got there. I thought he might have just been looking for treasure to steal, but Fly was convinced that he was going to kill you and that I had something to do with it.” Mirage sighed heavily. “I tried so desperately to convince her otherwise, but she wouldn’t hear me. You...probably know how stubborn she is. Fly would’ve done anything as long as she was convinced that it was for your safety, and that night she took off with your egg.” Mirage stared sadly at the tent flap. “I never saw her again.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper stared at the floor. “I can't believe…how…why would she </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> that!?” She sighed, shaking her head. “And I’m part SandWing…” Copper looked up at the general. “That’s why I’m so funny-looking.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage immediately drew her into a hug and held her tight. “You are </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>funny looking,” he told her fiercely, rubbing Copper’s forehead with the edge of his wing. “I don’t want to hear you talking like that about yourself, and if anybody else does they can join Jara and those other idiots in chains for the night.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper laughed out loud, and after a few moments later Mirage started laughing too. “You laugh just like Fly did,” he said after a few chuckles. Copper glanced up as her own laughter died down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You really think so?” she asked. “Some of the dragons we traded with said I didn’t look anything like her.” She sighed, blinking quickly so as to ward away tears. Her mother's name had such a horrible sound to it, now that she was--</span>
  <em>
    <span>no, don't even think it.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper hesitated before continuing once more. “A few of the traders thought that Fly had stolen me from some other dragon…do I really look like her?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage frowned. “They did?” He snorted. “I don’t think they were looking very closely then. I mean, look.” He gestured to the horn on the end of Copper’s snout. “It’s curved right at the very tip, just like your mother’s. You laugh like her, you smile like her, you hold yourself like her, just...” The general cut himself off with a huff. “You look very much like Fly did.” Copper decided she liked how he defended her, how protective he was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sighing, Mirage pulled his wing back, then folded against his side. His eyes were focused on something beyond the tent flap, but before Copper could ask what was going on he spoke up first.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You may come in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, I was beginning to think that you’d forgotten me out here.” Mamba poked his head in, grinning as usual. “Is it time for the tour now?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I get a tour?” Copper turned to Mirage in astonishment, and he nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. The Outclaws need to know that my daughter has come home, and you need to get a feel for the place before you end up getting yourself lost. Scorpion Den mongrels also need to know that you're with us...After Mamba’s shown you around, we’ll have an Outclaw dinner ready here for you.” He smiled a little to himself, then flicked his tail at Mamba. “Bring Sandstone and Beetle as well. I won’t have any more rumors started around here.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds great.” Mamba chuckled, then turned to leave. “Coming, Copper?” Copper glanced at her father, who smiled a little and motioned for her to go with the guard. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hugging Mirage one last time, Copper turned and slipped away from the SandWing to find Mamba outside by the tent flap, waiting for her. It was late morning, and the fierce sunlight reflected off Copper’s scales so brightly that the guard was forced to shield his eyes from the glare she provided when he looked her way. “Wow, that must be handy in combat,” he observed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper twisted her head around to squint at her shiny scales, which now shone even more brightly than her namesake was known to. “You know, I never really thought of that,” she admitted, flexing her wings and causing Mamba to look away again to avoid blinding himself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow,” he remarked, staring at the ground in front of Copper with shielded eyes. “I think it'll be fun to teach you how to use that to your advantage.” He grinned, glancing back toward Mirage's tent again. “You know, if you want I can teach your lessons for you. Mirage is already excited to see how you'll do, and I have no doubt that you’ll be a master Outclaw in no time.” He flexed his wings, still smiling. “After all, to be a good Outclaw you first need a good teacher.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper grinned, knowing he couldn't see her because of her scales, then laughed out loud. “I think I’d like that,” she decided. “Can you teach me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba nodded. “I'd be glad to. You'll make a fine Outclaw, I'm sure.” The SandWing lapsed into silence, and he and Copper stared at each other for a moment as she hunched up her body so as to be as minimally blinding as possible. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, suddenly, Mamba backed up and whacked Copper in the shoulder with the blunt end of his tail. “What’s this?!” he bellowed. Copper jolted upright, surprised at first, though she caught her breath when she realized that the SandWing was smirking and had that mischievous twinkle in his eye again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s more like it!” The SandWing shouted. “Straighten up! If you’re gonna be an Outclaw, you gotta learn to look like an Outclaw!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How am I supposed to do that?” Copper retorted. “I’m not even a SandWing!” This protest got her another whack upside the head via Mamba’s tail. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“DON’T TALK TO YOUR TEACHER LIKE THAT!” he roared. “STRAIGHTEN YOUR WINGS OUT; THEY’RE NOT LUMPS OF DEAD FISH, ARE THEY?! CHIN UP! HOLD YOUR HEAD HIGH!” Copper scrambled to do as she was instructed while Mamba poked her wings and jabbed at her talons. Glancing at her tail, however, the guard frowned a little. “Can you hold it like this?” he asked Copper, lowering his voice as he showed her how he curled his barbed tail up over her back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper looked over at Mamba for a moment before trying to copy him, lifting her tail up and curling it over her back like a scorpion’s. “Like this?” she asked. The position was oddly comfortable, and while she knew she probably looked dumb without the usual SandWing barb on the end of it, Copper didn’t really care. She liked it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perfect!” Mamba grinned. “ALRIGHT, ATTEN</span>
  <em>
    <span>TION</span>
  </em>
  <span>! NECK STRAIGHT, HEAD HIGH, WINGS STRAIGHT, TAIL UP, </span>
  <em>
    <span>MARCH</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And off they went.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have no excuse I'm just an idiot.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Sandstone met Mamba and Copper out by what seemed to be the edge of the Outclaw settlement, right on time which she guessed wasn't surprising given who his teacher was. It was incredibly hot outside, but Copper swallowed down her complaints as Sandstone flew over, then snapped into attention before Mamba could yell at him. Beetle waved to the three of them with a big sandy wing, and when Copper glanced back she thought she saw Mirage glancing out his tent as well, smirking, then disappearing into it again. They moved a little farther out, not quite to the city, and turned around. Mamba motioned to a group of tents with his wing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In those tents are Cactus, Eburnean, Briar, and Mirage,” he said. “After Thorn became queen, Hyena took charge of the Outclaws down here and appointed four other dragons to help her with the smaller matters. Her tent is up there.” Mamba gestured to a much bigger tent right up against the edge of the water by the Oasis, surrounded in a semi-circle by the four other SandWing tents. “She takes care of the bigger stuff,” the guard continued. “Mirage is probably the most trusted of her advisors; Eburnean's a bit loose on things and you already know what Cactus is like ‘specially on a bad day. Briar’s pretty good, and I think she’s about the only one aside from Mirage himself that knew about you. The five of 'em do a pretty good job running the place smoothly. ”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper looked over the white cloth structures, recognizing Cactus’ tent from the hole that was still in the process of being fixed, and her father’s a little off to the left of it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That sounds smart,” she stated, and Sandstone nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba chuckled. “I'm glad you approve,” he told the dragonets, eyes glittering with amusement. “Alright, so you’ve only been around the perimeter and the center road before Copper, so I’m gonna warn you now--city’s dangerous, loud, crowded, and it’s crazy easy to get lost. The side streets are much rowdier than the main one. Stick close to me; they’ll know you’re under our protection and learn to give you space soon enough. Don’t be afraid to shove, but watch the tails. Got it?” Copper nodded eagerly, and Sandstone swiftly dipped his head in acknowledgement. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“RIGHT! DRAGONETS, READY, MARCH!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both dragonets instinctively straightened, and as they headed past the oasis Copper quickly discovered just how crowded the Scorpion Den really was. Going around the edges with Jararacussu and Sandstone--along with the brisk trot through the main streets--was crowded enough, yet it was nothing compared to this enormous, rowdy, smelly, jostling multitude that seemed more than determined to trample anyone and everyone that tried to come through. Most of the dragons that saw Mamba scrambled to get out of the way despite the other SandWings pressing in on their every side, backing away and even into other stalls and alleyways in a sort of fearful anger. Black tongues flickered out of their mouths, and they hissed and spat at the Outclaws as they passed by. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone seemed pretty used to the reactions of the other dragons, but Copper was still nervous, skidding and sliding on the hard stone around whatever dragons she could, smacking into some when she could do nothing to avoid it and yelping when they bared their teeth at her. Mamba did his best to help Copper maneuver through the streets, but before long she was panting from the exertion in the heat.  It was so </span>
  <em>
    <span>dry</span>
  </em>
  <span> and the sun was beating down on her scales, and the added heat from all the dragons milling around certainly didn’t help things at all. She tried to stay at attention for Mamba as she fought her way through the crowds, but before long her wings were sagging and her throat felt like it was on fire. Mamba seemed to catch on to Copper’s condition rather swiftly, however, slowing a bit and turning to pass his sharp gaze over the two dragonets. Looking at Copper, he seemed only slightly worried as their eyes met. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here,” he told her, guiding the group to the side of the street and untying a camel skin from around his neck that Copper hadn’t noticed before. He handed it to her, and she realized that it was full to the brim with cool, refreshing water. She tipped it towards her open jaws and gulped the liquid down as fast as she could without spilling it, draining the entire container in what seemed like seconds. It felt like the skin was empty so soon, and with a wave of guilt Copper realized that she hadn't saved any for the other two dragons to drink. Sandstone didn't look bothered at all, however, and Mamba only smiled somewhat sympathetically as she passed the skin back to him. “It’s alright,” he said, carefully re-tying the skin around his neck. “You’ll get used to the sun here eventually.” Then he turned and plunged back into the crowds.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How long is an eventually?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Soon they came to what looked like a massive marketplace, stall-crammed streets swarming with dragons like bees on a beehive in the hot sun. Copper thought she saw a massive IceWing slither underneath a shady canopy, though when she looked closer she knew that he couldn’t possibly have been Polar. He was far too big, and his scales were too white to belong to her silver-scaled friend. She sighed, feeling her stomach clench at the memory of the little IceWing, then turned to follow Mamba and Sandstone again. Copper kept one wing raised, trying to shield her eyes from the sun while dragons cringed away from her brilliant scales, clacking angrily to one another. She looked at Mamba. “Where are we--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somebody stepped on her tail, and Copper jumped back with a yelp, spinning around to lock eyes with the guilty dragon. The SandWing snarled at her when she caught his gaze, but then his eyes widened when he spotted Mamba and Sandstone, who’d also turned back with warning growls in their throats. “I-I’m sorry,” he stammered, then before Copper could even blink the dragon was gone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What in the moons...” she muttered, shaking her head and speeding up to a lope in order to catch up to Mamba and Sandstone once more. Sandstone was shaking his head in disgust, muttering under his breath as Copper made it to his side. Every dragon they passed turned their head to stare at Copper as if she was some kind of exhibit.  They whispered to one another, but no one dared approach Mamba to ask why he and Sandstone were leading around such a funny-looking SkyWing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Idiots,” snarled Sandstone quietly. “They don't know what they're talking about in the slightest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper glanced at him, a bit touched by the protectiveness shown by her friend, but she decided not to say anything. Instead she gave him a grateful look, walking quietly beside the burly SandWing dragonet who snapped at anyone that got too close to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He really cares...</span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought, gratefully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They headed down the side of the street, past vendors shouting things like “Brightsting Cactus!” and “Finest rugs in all of the Kingdom of Sand!” and “Water, get your fresh water here!” and “Roasted lizards!” and “Camel’s milk!” and just about everything else imaginable. It seemed like there wasn't a thing around that wasn't was on sale there in that market. Sandstone’s stomach rumbled like a small volcanic eruption when they passed one of the roasted lizard stalls, the sound so loud that several dragons turned to stare at him, then rushed off once they noticed Mamba. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba coughed a harsh-sounding laugh. “You hungry, boy?” the older Sandwing asked. Sandstone nodded sheepishly, trying not to look embarrassed as he shifted from talon to talon uneasily. He'd changed entirely from the almost-frightening, protective friend at Copper’s side of but a moment ago, and was now more of the awkward and clumsy Sandstone that she recognized. Mamba just shook his head as he led them to the stall, stepping up to the counter and slapping a small ruby onto it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll take three of them lizards,” he barked at the owner, whose eyes widened slightly at the sight of the Outclaw. He obeyed Mamba quickly, whirling around and fishing three burnt somethings out of a large pot to hand to him. Mamba took the lizards, who'd been conveniently impaled upon charred sticks, and stuffed one in his mouth before passing one each to Sandstone and Copper. Sandstone didn’t even pause before he practically inhaled the lizard, stick and all, grinning at Copper as he chewed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Itsh goodh!” he proclaimed through a mouthful of char, and Copper laughed at the SandWing's antics before taking a small bite of the burnt lizard herself. It tasted better than she had expected, and she slowly nibbled away at the treat as the two dragonets followed Mamba down street after street of the Scorpion den. Cobblestone streets clacked and scraped under her claws, though it didn’t bother her much after she'd spent her entire life in a cave with a very similar flooring. The only difference was that these stones burned her feet, though Copper tried not to think about that while Mamba rattled off street names and lectured the dragonets on a bit of the Scorpion Den’s history. The guard hardly seemed to pause for breath, often cutting himself off mid-sentence in order to holler at random SandWings to get out of his way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The rest of the afternoon was spent walking up and down cobblestone streets.  By the time Mamba finally began leading the dragonets back to the Outclaw camp Copper's throat was dry again and her scales were crusted with dust and sand from the Scorpion Den. The skies overhead were drawing into shades of purple and indigo as the group reached the tents, and there they found that General Mirage had been quite busy while they were gone. Torches were set up and burning to light up a round patch of sand near the oasis, and Outclaws wandered around the shore with each other in small, chattering groups. Younger SandWings were running around between the adults’ talons, shrieking and laughing as they played their games of chase and tag with one another. Long tables were lined up by a stony area with extra torches closest to the shore, and Copper spotted her father with four other SandWings hovering close by it. Mirage turned and noticed her as the threesome approached, smiling warmly and motioning to her with a wing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, why are we--hey!” Copper yelped as Mamba shoved her forward towards her father, and she shot a glare back at the SandWing before galloping over and into Mirage's arms. The general laughed and hugged her for a long time, releasing her a few moments later and resting a wing on Copper’s shoulder as he turned to the other SandWings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is my daughter,” he told them, chin held high and chest puffed out with pride. “Her name is Copper.” Copper stiffened as her name was spoken, and four SandWing faces peered down at her in something that resembled curiosity as she pressed shyly against her father's side. Mirage smiled at her, then looked around the circle and began introducing her to the dragons. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is Eburnean,” the general pointed to an ivory-colored SandWing with a relaxed expression, and he smiled politely at her. Copper grinned a little in return, then waved a claw in greeting. “Over there is Briar,” Mirage gestured to a tense tan-colored dragon, and she raised an eyebrow before giving Copper a curt nod. “And you already know Cactus, I believe.” The other female SandWing scowled darkly at the sand as she was mentioned, but said nothing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And last but most certainly not least, Copper, this is Hyena. She’s the leader of the Outclaws, now that Thorn commands the kingdom.” A dust-colored SandWing with near-black speckles on her flanks nodded to Copper, neither tense nor relaxed, before smiling a little. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve got a pretty little dragonet there,” she remarked, her dark eyes glittering. “I’m glad to see that she’s come home at last.” The leader of the Outclaws appeared serene, but her eyes held an intensity to them, sharp and bright like live coals, and she radiated authority like no dragon Copper had ever seen before. The other dragons clearly respected her, even the prickly Cactus who had been rather ironically named seemed subdued around Hyena. She had her wings calmly folded around her shoulders, nodding with the others as Hyena spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Welcome home, Copper,” Eburnean was the first to speak to the agreeing murmurs of the others, smiling still while Mirage affectionately squeezed Copper’s shoulder with a pale talon. She hesitantly looked over the SandWings, then nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It's good to be home,” she said quietly. Everyone's gaze rested on her for a moment in something that resembled friendliness, then the dragons’ gazes drifted to the scene around them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Outclaws were everywhere, swarming in flocks of dragons that rolled on to the edges of the camp</span>
  <em>
    <span>. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Perched on palm trees and crouched by tent flaps, the SandWings had spread themselves out over every available inch of sand in the celebration. They milled around the tables and stalked around the oasis, snacking on various charred delicacies wherever they could in between chatting and playing games with one another. Many of them stared at Copper and gave her odd looks when they noticed her, and after a few moments she ducked under her father’s wing to watch from there where she wouldn’t be so easily seen. Sandstone appeared a few feet away, a questioning look in his eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage glanced at the younger SandWing, then at Copper. She smiled a little, and he gently nudged his daughter towards Sandstone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go mingle with the others,” he told her as she slunk over to his friend. He flicked his tail at Sandstone. “And you, you’ll watch her, won’t you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone nodded eagerly, nearly smacking Copper in the side of the face with a sandy wing as he rocked forward on his hind talons in excitement. “Of course!” he laughed, grinning as Copper ducked away and wiped the dust off of her face with a talon and decided to sit a little father away from the burly SandWing while he looked out at the crowds in barely contained excitement. Her friend didn’t really seem to notice what he’d done, eyes bright and shining with happiness at Mirage’s orders. “I can introduce you to my friends! They’re here now I bet. You’ll like them, Copper, I know you will. Wanna go see them?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper grinned herself, deciding not to spoil Sandstone’s happy mood by mentioning his clumsiness to him. “Sounds good,” she told him, slowly rising to her talons and stepping after Sandstone as he lumbered into the crowd of milling Outclaws at an inelegant lope. Most of meandering SandWings nodded respectfully to Copper when they saw her, that or they didn’t seem to notice her presence at all while they chatted with their friends. She tried to smile back at the ones that nodded to her, though it was hard while trying to simultaneously keep up with a clumsy friend that kept randomly changing directions and stumbling into other dragons on accident while looking for his friends. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took awhile, but after a few wrong turns in the crowd Sandstone managed to lead Copper past most of the adults, pulling her into a group of dragonets that seemed to be about their age and beaming at all of them. The dragonets were wrestling and giggling and chasing after each other in the sand by the water, but they all stopped as soon as they spotted Copper standing next to Sandstone. She straightened herself and lifted her chin, wanting to appear as confident as possible to the Outclaw dragonets. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone stood up, almost as if it was his cue, and addressed the group in his deep-yet-still-squeaky voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guys, this is my friend, Copper,” he explained, motioning to her with a wing</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” Copper said, forcing a calm she didn’t know existed into her voice, tail twitching slightly as she looked over the group of SandWings. Their faces were all unreadable, and they exchanged quiet looks with each other before turning their gazes back on Copper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I'm pretty sure you've all heard about her--she was the so-called 'desert monster’ from two days ago. Copper, meet Tarantula, Roadrunner, and the twins Drift and Dusty.” His gaze passed over the dragonets again. “She’s Mirage’s daughter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The SandWings all listened carefully to the biggest of their group, then seemed to relax as Sandstone finished his explanation. Tarantula, or at least who Copper thought was Tarantula, was the first to speak up. She was only a little bigger than Copper herself, covered in yellow scales that were spotted with pale grey. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I like your scales!” she proclaimed with grin, pointing a talon at Copper and chuckling a bit. “The name fits you. You wanna play with us? We’re just doing hide-’n-go-seek-tag, Dusty ‘n Drift are it, mostly cous they wouldn’t stop begging and we like a challenge.” A pair of sandy-pale brown dragonets with orange tones in their scales stuck their tongues out at Copper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Think you can outrun us?” the slightly bigger one, Drift, asked. “Only Roadrunner’s faster than us so far.” A scrawny little SandWing that was somehow even smaller than Copper grinned at her name. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That's right!” she cried gleefully, spreading her greyish-brown wings and snapping them shut again. “Ain’t nobody can catch me yet! You ready to give it a try?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper shuffled her wings. “I’m ready,” she answered, trying to sound at least a little bit more confident than she felt. “What are the rules for the game?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone nudged her and she turned to him, watching as he pointed towards the city. “Not too many rules,” he said. “You can’t leave the Scorpion den of course, you have to stay in the Outclaw part of the city, and you’re not supposed to knock anyone over.” He paused as a couple of the dragonets giggled at this, and Copper realized that Sandstone with his bulky build and clumsy coordination probably wasn’t very good at this game. He seemed happy enough though, and the other dragonets definitely looked up to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Also, no getting into the Oasis. Mamba will whip you good if you do that,” Tarantula piped up, shuddering a bit visibly. The others nodded quickly in agreement, and Copper raised an eyebrow. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Whip me good? Sounds like she’s speaking from experience…</span>
  </em>
</p><p><span>“Can I count down?” Dusty asked, stepping forward and puffing his chest out. Even with the action, he still seemed rather</span> <span>small, and when she looked closer Copper realized that his horns weren't quite full-sized yet. </span><em><span>They all seem to be at least a year younger than I am, </span></em><span>Copper realized, glancing at the other dragonets. </span><em><span>They’re kinda...small still compared to the adults. </span></em></p><p>
  <span>“I thought you said I could next round,” Roadrunner frowned, slumping back and glaring at Dusty. The twin shrank back a little, then automatically turned to Sandstone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone blinked as he realized that the two wanted him to solve the problem, glancing between the two dragonets and thinking for a moment before clearing his throat to speak. “You alright with doing it next time, Dusty?” the burly SandWing asked. “I did promise her last time.” Dusty sighed but nodded good-naturedly, and he and Drift backed up so that they were standing side-by-side on the edge of the lake. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You gotta ten-second head start,” Roadrunner whispered to Copper, who nodded to show that she’d heard. The other SandWing straightened. “Alright guys. Three...two...one…” she paused, watching the others as if to see if any were going to move early. Then she tipped her head up and opened her mouth. “GOOO!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper spread her wings and bolted off like there was fire under her wings as soon as the smallest SandWing’s cry streaked into the night, noticing a few other sandy shapes on her right and left darting off as well. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Wow, Roadrunner really is fast, she thought,</span>
  </em>
  <span> watching as the greyish SandWing darted into the crowd and disappeared before she could even blink</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Turning back to face forward, Copper forced herself to focus upon the new task at hand. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Now, where can I hide? Let’s see…</span>
  </em>
  <span>She could hide in the crowd like Roadrunner, or dig herself into the sand like she thought she saw Tarantula try to do--Copper twisted her head around to try and see Sandstone, but the larger SandWing seemed to have already disappeared. Camouflage wouldn’t work, she knew that already. Her reflective scales would ruin everything if she tried to bury herself like Tarantula or duck into the crowds like Roadrunner, so she had to be tricky here if she wanted to win. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Scanning the area around her for potential hiding spots, Copper noticed the tables that she had seen Hyena and the others standing around earlier--the group had moved over to a sort of stone dais covered in rugs just beyond the lake shore, and were watching as other SandWings chatted and selected various foods from the tables. Copper was small, and the tables were covered in cloth, so they seemed like just the right space for her to hide in, especially with all those SandWings around the edges. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Perfect.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper quickly dropped to the ground and spun around in all directions, ears perked and eyes watching. No Drift. No Dusty. Slipping forward, Copper caught Mirage’s eye and grinned at him where he was standing a few feet to the left of Hyena. He smiled back at her, and she turned to squeeze between two SandWings and slide under the table before the others could see her, pulling her wings and tail close around her and making sure that the flap was all the way down on either side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Settling back, she closed her eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And waited. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And waited.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And waited.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper’s wings started to cramp after a while of smashing them by her flanks, but after what felt like an absolute eternity of tense waiting she heard voices just beyond her hiding spot. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Haha, gotcha Tarantula!” The voice sounded like Drift’s.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s so cheating!” Tarantula growled back at the twins. “He stepped on my tail!” Copper imagined the little SandWing making an outraged gesture at some Outclaw that didn’t even know what was going on and stifled a giggle, clapping a talon over her mouth so that they couldn’t hear. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t ruin it, featherbrain!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, so?” Drift argued, and as Copper poked her snout under the flap she saw him stamp his talon on the sand. “It’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>our </span>
  </em>
  <span>fault that you hid right there where everyone’s walking!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah!” Dusty agreed, nodding his head. “I mean, you could’ve hid closer to shore.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But the sand’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>wet </span>
  </em>
  <span>there,” Tarantula grumped, shuffling her wings and looking quite similar to a sour bird in a downpour with her head and wings hunched up so close to her shoulders. After a long moment, however, she let out a sigh. “Oh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>whatever</span>
  </em>
  <span>. It’s just a game. I’ll get you two back later.” She stuck her tongue out at them, tail flashing back and forth before changing the subject. “You know where Copper went?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The twins shook their heads, and Copper quickly pulled her head back under the flap just in case. “She’s fast,” she heard one of them say, sounding a bit surprised. “I think she’d even beat Roadrunner, like she’s crazy fast. I guess we haven’t been around SkyWings enough.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dang,” Tarantula said. “That’s crazy alright. Think Mamba will let us train with her? I bet that’d be a ton of fun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe,” the twins said in unison. “But we’ll worry about that later, let’s go get the others now. Mirage is gonna make his speech soon,” Drift added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper looked out again as the three dragonets turned and began moving out, eyes darting all over the place in search of Sandstone, Roadrunner, and herself. A few moments of silence passed, and to entertain herself Copper decided to eavesdrop on the conversations of the Outclaws meandering around the food tables outside her little hiding spot. A couple of SandWings stopped right on her left and Copper listened in, ears pricked curiously. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t believe that his daughter’s back after all these years. Especially after those ru--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“--I heard that she was kidnapped!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then where’s her mother? There’s no way the SkyWings would have kept such an odd dragon like her alive. Someone had to have helped her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think her mother took her away from the general?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course. That’s the only way she’d have survived. Everybody knows that she’s a hybrid.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well,</span>
  </em>
  <span> I</span>
  <em>
    <span> didn’t, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper thought with a huff. The sand stirred around her talons, and above the two Outclaws shifted as if uncomfortable. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What was that?” the first one asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper could almost hear the eye roll in the other dragon’s voice. “How would I know?” he growled. “Probably just paranoid again, you big idiot.” They shuffled off, muttering to each other. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gotcha.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper whipped around just as a sandy-yellow talon poked underneath the cloth flap, jerking her body out of the way right before the claw could touch her tail. “Camel farts!” Sandstone’s big head jerked under the flap with a thump as his forehead hit the edge of the table, and with a somewhat frustrated grumble he jabbed his claw at Copper again. Her wings jerked away and she twitched onto her feet, backing away to where Sandstone couldn’t reach her. He grinned at her. “Not bad.” Then he suddenly lunged at her from under the table, and Copper yelped as she scrambled to get out of the way of her friend’s sharp talons before they could catch her. There was a crash, followed by a clattering of plates and a chorus of surprised yelps and cries from the SandWings as the table toppled over onto its side. Copper, just ahead of the wreckage, rolled through the sand to escape being squished. She quickly slid back to her feet as soon as she got her talons gathered under her body, then turned and raced away as fast as her legs could carry her. She turned to see Sandstone clambering over the collapsed table, but he seemed unhurt as he shot after her heels.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s talons pounded over the sandy earth, and she could see already that Sandstone wasn’t really a match for her speed. She slowed slightly, then twisted her head over her shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How’d ya see me?” she called to him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone grinned through panting breaths. “Saw you...hide...came after...you...after they...found me…”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper turned back around so that she was facing forward again, frowning a little in thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>So I missed him after all. Wow, I didn’t know he could be so sneaky especially with how big he is. Was it Mamba that trained him? Where did he hide? I never saw him at all. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Suddenly, Copper’s eyes shot wide open as Tarantula seemed to appear out of nowhere in front of her, flaring her wings wide and rearing up to make herself appear as big as possible, talons outstretched. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We got you!” she cried. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s head swung from side to side like a panicked rabbit, then suddenly her gaze tore upwards to the star-studded sky overhead. A flash of inspiration shuddered through her wings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was only one option, she realized.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Up.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Before the SandWing ahead could reach her Copper snapped her wings open on either side of her, then threw them down towards the earth in a single, desperate flap. Dust billowed up around her, and her scales hit the ground hard before she was jerked upwards. The abrupt attempt at takeoff didn't provide her with very much lift overall, but Copper yanked her wings back in and she twisted her body to the side as she shot up into the air, throwing every inch as far away from her opponents talons as possible. Simultaneously Tarantula stretched her talons as far up as she could, too confident to try and take flight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somehow, Copper’s trick worked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?!” the SandWing shrieked at Copper in both surprise and alarm as her talons fell only inches short of scraping her adversary’s scales, and she caught a gust of air instead. With an enraged shriek Tarantula leaped up and dove after Copper, wings flapping madly though her speed was nothing compared to a SkyWing’s. Sandstone had taken flight as well, and as she glanced back Copper saw Drift and Dusty coming in from the left, their wings beating almost perfectly in unison. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Still no Roadrunner, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she realized as she glanced over the gathered dragonets, amazed by the smallest SandWing’s speed.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Man, she’s good! Maybe she could teach me some of her tricks sometime, they’d probably be handy--</span>
  </em>
  <span>Suddenly Copper let out a yelp as her wing dipped too low and nearly became impaled on a Sandwing horn. She jerked it out of the way just in time and flew up a bit higher, eyes wide. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Pay attention here before you kill yourself! </span>
  </em>
  <span>her mind shrieked at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper glanced back at her opponents once more, anxious smoke curling up from her nostrils and spreading into the sky overhead. Even though it was clear that the SandWings couldn’t beat her with speed, they did have her outnumbered and their rules for staying inside the Outclaw encampment made flying a bit harder than she thought it would--just a few more wingbeats and she’d be at the edge of the gamezone. It was time to change her gameplan, because remaining in the air wouldn’t be an option if she wanted to win.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span><br/>
</span>
  </em>
  <span>She slowed down and spun lazily around the edges of the Outclaw tents, waiting until the SandWings caught up to her. They seemed confused, faces scrunched up in wonder as they neared, and Copper could almost hear what they were thinking: </span>
  <em>
    <span>what in the three moons is that SkyWing </span>
  </em>
  <span>thinking</span>
  <em>
    <span>? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Still, they came closer, countenances somewhere between confusion and pride. Copper smiled at them, waiting until they were just a few wingbeats away, then suddenly did a backflip and dove into the crowds of Outclaws. Dragons yelped as she scrambled through their midst, her scales flashing in a frenzy of metallic color underneath and around them as Sandstone’s flustered gang flew in from behind. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dusty and Drift spun off to the side while the others closed in from behind, and Copper could see the glint of a challenge in their eyes as their wings beat against the night air. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suddenly, the twins materialized overhead, each shrieking something that sounded very much like a battle cry before diving straight towards her front side-by-side. Copper’s eyes darted around in a panic, looking for anything that could help her escape, before she ducked and rolled her thin body beneath a surprised SandWing while the twins were forced to keep flying and pull up to avoid crashing into any of the older Outclaws.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“HA, TAKE THAT!” Copper shrieked gleefully at the other dragonets as she rolled onto her feet, then turned and sprinted into the crowd with a ringing whoop of excitement. Running through the tangles of dragons like this felt so similar to her runs through the jungle that Copper nearly forgot where she was, though her mind quickly snapped back into the present when she nearly crashed into another SandWing that appeared on the path in front of her. She leaped aside at the last moment and tried again, this time narrowly avoiding a tail in the face as she flipped under the dragon’s wing and bolted to the left with Sandstone right behind her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t quite as lucky as she'd been, and went sprawling into the sand as one of his back talons caught on the Outclaw’s tail. His snout smashed into the sand, followed by the rest of the dragonet as he tumbled head-over heels and sent up billowing clouds of dust with his wings. Copper slowed down slightly to make sure he was alright, but Sandstone leaped up just as the outraged SandWing lashed out at him with her claws. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“WATCH IT, YOU CAMEL-FACED SPIT-WAD!” she shouted at him. Sandstone stumbled again with a yelp, then scrambled to get out of her way as she curled her tail over her back like a scorpion and snarled at him.   </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry!” he shouted back at her, then turned and started after Copper once more while Tarantula appeared and galloped beside him. Copper sped up again, scanning the area to see what else she could do. She noticed Mamba watching her, and he winked at her before she turned back to her escape route. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Too late. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Roadrunner suddenly materialized in front of Copper, flaring her wings out and rearing up on her back legs to make herself as big as possible. Copper shrieked and spread her own wings, uselessly digging her talons into the sand and trying to stop herself before she smashed into the other dragonet. The two tumbled over and over and over each other, sending up great billowing clouds of dust and sand that sent Copper into a fit of coughing when she tried to suck a breath in. They slid to a stop, then before Copper could do anything Roadrunner jumped on top of her and tapped her on the snout with a claw. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I got you!” she chuckled, then leaped off. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper was still coughing from the amount of sand she’d accidentally breathed in, though as her mind cleared surprise shuddered over her scales. The other dragonets suddenly appeared around her, laughing and giggling as Copper stood up and dusted herself off. Immediately she looked over at Sandstone, a bit shocked over how she’d been caught so...effectively by the others. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We got you good!” Dusty cried. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course!” Drift snorted, leaning into his twin. “She walked right into our trap!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper felt her wings droop. “What? Trap? I didn’t know you could team up with each other!” She looked at Sandstone, both surprised and confused and maybe a little hurt. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That’s cheating, isn’t it? They didn’t say they could do that! How is that supposed to be fair?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone shook his head when he saw Copper’s expression, and looked like he was about to say something when a familiar voice stopped him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I told ‘em to,” Mamba announced, slithering into view and shaking the dust off his flaxen wings. The SandWing dragonets all nodded quickly, heads bowed slightly towards their mentor. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We had to tell Sandstone real quick about it after he got here, though, otherwise it wouldn’t have worked,” Tarantula added quickly. “But we weren’t supposed to say anything to you about it.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Sandstone bobbed his head up and down. “We were supposed to do a trick with teamwork--he let us pick which one--and see how long you lasted. It was a kind of test, I think.” He spread his talons helplessly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Exactly,” the twins both spoke up in unison, their voices unsettlingly similar to each other. “Roadrunner’s the fastest, so we had Sandstone spook you out of your hiding spot and drive you towards her. Tarantula wanted to try to get you though, so she went first and we figured that’d be it, but you somehow got around her and Roadrunner had to jump in real quick.” Copper’s gaze flickered between the two dragonets as they took turns speaking, and Tarantula glared at them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I came close,” the SandWing dragonet grumbled, poking the sand with her venomous tail. “Really close.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper was grinning a little now, and straightened up as she glanced around at the others in the group. “Oh. So. You were testing me, then. I guess...nobody’s probably escaped you guys, huh?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Roadrunner shook her head. “No, but you came pretty close,” she answered, her sharp white teeth gleaming in the torchlight when she laughed. “I had to spin ‘round and get ahead more’n three times before I finally caught you, and it might’ve only been ‘cause you got distracted with ‘im.” She tilted her head towards Mamba. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No kidding!” Tarantula flipped her tail between her talons excitedly, looking very much as if she would explode right out of her scales. “Those big wings of yours make you pretty fast, isn’t that it? Man, you’ll have to teach us your tricks sometime, or maybe we can train with you! Wouldn’t that be fun? That sounds fun!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba shook his head with a grin. “It hasn’t been decided yet, buuuut…” he winked at Copper. “It’s very possible that you are looking upon your future classmate.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“MAMBA!” General Mirage’s bellowing tone shot over the crowds, and Mamba’s head snapped up while a few other dragons jumped a bit, startled by the sudden noise. The large brown SandWing’s head slowly swiveled around so that he faced where Mirage was standing, and the general glared at him before making an irritated motion with his tail. Mamba made another motion--this one with his claws--in reply, and the general rolled his eyes before looking away, tail flicking impatiently. Mambe turned back and grinned at the dragonets, unbothered by whatever Mirage had said to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Forgot about that,” the SandWing chuckled and glanced back at Copper’s father before addressing them again. “Our little bit of fun seems to have distracted me...” Mamba flicked a wing at Copper. “You. You need to head up front, lass. Your father’s gonna introduce ya to the Outclaws here, and he ain’t gonna be too happy if he ain’t got no daughter up there with him to introduce.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper froze. “He’s gonna what?” Her muscles tensed and she backed away from the older SandWing, but all at once there were five pairs of dragonet talons pushing her forward after Mamba. “Don’t worry about it!” Tarantula laughed, and the others nodded in agreement. “We’ll be in the front row, cheering you on!” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Wait what? Introduce me? In front of all these dragons? Outclaws? Is that a good idea?</span>
  </em>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  
  <span>Copper’s mind was whirling as the others shoved her towards her mentor. She stumbled forward, and Mamba waited for her to reach him before laying a wing on her shoulder and steering her towards the dais where her father stood waiting. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I guess it makes sense, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she conceded to herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mira--Dad would want to tell them who I am. Of course that’s what the dinner’s for--introducing me.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Here at the party the atmosphere was incredibly different from in the Scorpion Den where everyone fled from the Outclaws in fear. Instead, these rowdy SandWings swarmed past each other in chattering groups, roughly shoving each other around between bursts of howling laughter and talk. The sharp noises seemed to blur into each other, rising steadily into the night along with small clouds of dust thrown up by stray tails and wings. It seemed that the dragonets weren’t the only ones playing games either, and many were chasing each other around or getting into play fights as Mamba lead Copper by them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few moments later, Copper and Mamba reached the dais with the many-colored ornate rugs that she’d noticed earlier, and Mamba motioned for her to climb onto it. “Here’s a bit of advice,” he told her as she hopped up and nearly fell off in the first try. “Pick one dragon and focus on them, don’t even to try watch them all at once if you want to stay calm.” Copper glared at him as she scrambled onto the dais a second time, this time managing to keep her talons from slipping.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I bet you can,” she huffed at Mamba. “I bet you’re great at this stuff.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re not me, are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper didn’t have an answer to that. She shot a glare at Mamba, though she didn’t really mean it, then turned back to the other dragons that were already standing on the platform. Her father was there next to Cactus and Eburnean, and he stretched out a wing towards her in invitation as she nervously approached them. She breathed a sigh of relief and slunk over to him, leaning against his side and enjoying the heat radiating off of his scales as he wrapped a big sandy wing around her. The air had cooled slightly since sunset, and Copper just wanted to bask in the warmth given off by her father’s scales forever and forget about stupid meetings and strange dragons and Outclaws and--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“ATTENTION!” Every Outclaw around the oasis clamped their jaws shut instantly, and the rush of silence following the echo of their previous cries was almost deafening as the dragons slowly shuffled face the dais and the dragons perched upon it. Copper peeked out at the crowds from under her father’s wing, and just like they had promised Sandstone’s gang was all squeezed into the front with Mamba. All of the dragonets were all grinning, jostling other dragons and each other aside so that they could see the dais better. Copper remembered Mamba’s advice as her eyes met his and shifted her gaze upward, catching Mirage’s black eyes instead. He smiled down at her, and she managed a small grin herself despite the nervousness she felt being in front of so many dragons, leaning into her father’s shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once all was quiet Mirage turned away from his daughter, pulling back his wing so that Copper was revealed to the Outclaw crowd. She stiffened as her father pulled away but didn’t move, her stance rigid as her father looked out at the gathered dragons and motioned to her with his talons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As a few of you remember--” Mirage’s booming voice shot through the crowds like lightning.  “--my wife abandoned the Outclaws several years ago, carrying with her our egg. I spent the last eight years searching for them both...and today, that search has finally ended.” The dragons began to murmur to each other, but the general cut them off with another low rumble. “My daughter has come back to me. Fellow SandWings and Ouclaws, I give you Copper.” He spread one wing and gestured to Copper, motioning for her to step forward as he did so. She did this on wobbly legs, head ducked anxiously as she stepped forward, then spread her wings and stood up a little taller so that all to see. Murmurs and gasps erupted among the dragons, and Hyena flicked her tail to silence them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Outclaws,” she bellowed, her voice carrying easily over the crowds. Her voice was fierce with energy, and her eyes glittered like stars. “I will not have any more rumors in my camp about this dragon. As far as you all are concerned Copper is one of you--one of us, and you will treat her as such. No more tales of monsters and invisibility, I will not have my dragons spreading lies. Failure to follow these orders is not advisable.” Her gaze swept over the Outclaws as if daring them to challenge her order; wisely none stepped forward to do so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dead silence hung over the oasis. Then, in a snap, Mamba lifted into the air above the crowd with a few quick wingbeats. “Outclaws!” he cried. “Why don't we all show Copper a proper welcome?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Three cheers for Copper!” All the dragonets on the front row shrieked in unison. It was as if a spell had been broken. Almost immediately the still crowd of SandWings erupted, releasing a rowdy cacophony of whoops, hollers, shrieks, cheers, and howls of congratulations into the night. Outclaws clapped their wings and talons together, some smacking each other in the process. Dragons smiled crooked broken smiles at Copper, some nodded to her, still others came up and roughly clapped her on the back with their sharp talons as she slipped off the dais with her father at her side and into the crowds. Even as they began wandering towards the tents her ears rang from the cheering, and from the dais Copper thought she heard Hyena dismissing the Outclaws to their tents and patrols. Some dragons quickly started pulling apart the tables to store away until the next feast, and Copper yawned as she watched them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Feeling tired?” Mirage asked with a chuckle. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper nodded, stifling another yawn as she did so. She thought she saw the twins heading off when she glanced back at the retreating Outclaws, and perhaps the tiny form of Roadrunner alongside Sandstone's greater bulk even farther away. She wanted to call to them but couldn’t summon the energy for it, and when she turned around again she noticed a few materials scattered by the side of her father’s tent that she hadn't seen before. Objects like wood and strips of cloth along with various tools likely meant to help put it together were heaped against the side of the tent in the sand, waiting to be used. Mirage followed her gaze to the items, and casually gestured to the pile with a claw. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m having them make a tent for you,” he explained, glancing between the materials and Copper with his sharp eyes. “It will connect onto mine once it’s finished, but until your tent is done I’m afraid you’ll have to sleep here in my quarters.” Mirage smiled a little, then sighed and turned to look back at the crowds to dispersing Outclaws. “Go ahead Copper, I’ll be back in a few hours. Business to finish up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aright.” Copper shifted, and was about to turn around when she remembered something and spun around again. “Wait, Dad?” she called. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Dad.</span>
  </em>
  <span> The word sent shivers up her spine as the bigger SandWing stopped and turned around, one eyebrow raised. “Mamba and the others said something about training tomorrow? Am I training?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage blinked at her, then gave a slow nod. “I was going to ask you about that tomorrow morning, yes,” he answered. “Do you want to train with Mamba?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely!” she declared, grinning. “I’d love to train with him. If that’s okay with you, I mean.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay?” Mirage laughed, his teeth glinting in the light of the torches. “That’s more than okay. Mamba’s probably one of the best teachers around here, I have no doubt that you’ll learn a lot from him.” Spreading his wings, the general stepped back and drew Copper into another hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow, alright?” Copper leaned into his shoulder for a moment, then nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Goodnight, dad,” she said, turning and slipping into the tent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Night, Copper,” called Mirage’s voice after her.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Depression, adhd, and anxiety do not mix in college.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When Copper first opened her eyes the next morning there were two live-coal eyes staring back at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“GAH!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper scrambled backward from the black eyes with a yelp and tripped over a pile of skins, sending up a small cloud of dust as her snout rammed into the sand on the other side. Dazed, she lay there on the ground for a moment, trying to puzzle out what she was doing in a strange tent and covered in dust and camel skins. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mother always swept out the cave, and I don’t remember her painting the walls...</span>
  </em>
  <span>Her eyes blinked rapidly. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Wait a minute…Someone else is here...This isn’t my cave...That wasn’t Mother...</span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper rolled over so that she faced where she'd been sleeping, snout twisted into a look of puzzlement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As she had already known, it was not Fly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage was stretched out on a patch of sand just next to the skins were Copper had slept the night before. He was lying down scarcely a few inches from the marks of her panicked talons in the dust, his snout still sitting perfectly still atop a small pile of sand as his round eyes found hers and blinked several times. In that moment, memories of the night before flooded back into her mind, and Copper abruptly sat up with a bark of surprise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Were you...expecting someone else?” The SandWing sounded slightly surprised, even a little hurt. “I didn’t mean to surprise you...” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Dad.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Recognition further stirred Copper’s mind to wakefulness as the memories of Fly’s cave slowly faded away, like when the sun chased away the night’s fog in the rainforest. Her father was still staring at her, and he appeared to be more than a little upset over the alarm he’d accidentally caused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...uh, yeah, sort of.” Copper rubbed her eyes with the back of a talon, then cast a guilty look down at the skins she’d been sleeping on and her father who was stretched out on the sand next to them. The general had slept on bare sand the night before while she’d hogged all of his bedding, not to mention that her panic over being woken up didn’t appear to have helped things at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry Dad…” she apologized, ducking her head and scooting away from the skins. “I didn’t mean to leave you sleeping on the sand like that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not a big deal.” General Mirage smiled a little now that Copper was awake and had calmed down, slowly standing and shaking out his sandy wings before settling down again as well. “I’ve slept in the sand many times before, you know, and it can be just as comfortable as any camel skin.” He sighed, and glanced out the tent flap before his eyes found Copper’s again. “Besides, your tent should be finished sometime today, and then you’ll have your own space if you want it, camel skins included.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess so….But you could have woken me up last night.” Copper stabbed the sand in front of her with a talon with a huff. “I wouldn’t have minded.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The general shook his head. “No matter,” he said, standing up again. “You needed your sleep; today’s your first training session with Mamba. Wouldn’t want you half-asleep out there, now would I?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper shook her head, then threw her wings around Mirage’s neck and wrapped her talons around him, hugging him close. He hesitated, then hugged her back and gently released her, stepping back to lead Copper out the tent flap and into the Outclaw camp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The first thing she noticed stepping out of the tent was how awfully bright it was outside; Copper hissed and shielded her face with one wing, squinting at what she thought was a tree and someone sitting underneath it. As they got closer she realized it was Sandstone, who was leaning against the tree trunk and clutching a few burnt somethings in one talon. The other talon was holding onto three bits of twine that were tied to three water skins, one of which he passed to Mirage as the general approached him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper blinked hard as she stepped into the shade, looking up as one of the small burnt somethings was pressed into her talons along with a waterskin. She took both of the objects carefully, watching as Mirage snapped up his portion in one bite, before she shoved her own portion into her mouth and chased it down with the contents of her waterskin. The meal tasted mostly like char, though when she looked around Copper realized that what they’d had was breakfast, and it would be a long while until she ate again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You ready for your first lesson?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper whipped around with a yelp, then clamped her jaws shut and glared at Mamba as he slithered into the shade of the palm tree with the others. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Could you not scare me for once?” she growled, smoothing down her spines and settling her wings by her sides. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba shrugged. “Why not? You’ll need learn to do it yourself eventually, and if you do well enough in my classes you’ll know I’m there and not be so surprised when I show up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stealthy? With these scales?” Copper spread one of her wings dubiously, and Mamba was quickly forced to look away. Lifting a wing to shield his face, he tilted his head and squinted at the fierce desert light bouncing off of Copper’s scales, blinking rapidly before he shook his head and turned away again.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, it’ll be less about hiding for you,” he admitted a moment later, staring at the ground a few feet in front of Copper’s talons. “But we’ll figure something out, I can promise you that. Until then you’ll need to focus more on just being quiet, then I’ll help you figure out how to use those scales to your advantage when I think you’re ready.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper slowly lowered her wing again, tucking it close to her body so that Mamba could look at her again. “That doesn’t sound too bad,” she mused. “I guess.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba laughed, smacking Copper’s shoulder with the back of his tail. She tried not to flinch away, but it was hard when she saw the venomous barb curling from the end and how close it came to stabbing her. Her scales felt like they were trying to crawl out of themselves to get away from the stinging sensation it left behind, but Copper bit her tongue and ignored it. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I won’t have him think of me as a coward.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba didn’t seem to notice anything amiss, turning and starting out across the sand away from the tents. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s go,” he called back to Copper over his shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go where?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her mentor didn’t answer. Copper shook her wings out, trying to chase away the tingling sensation in her scales, then followed her mentor across the dunes to a circular clearing of sand  just by the water’s edge. The oasis stretched out and across the center of the Outclaw camp just beyond it, and Copper thought she could see several tent flaps billowing in the breeze on the other side. Palm trees were clustered in small groups around the edge of the water, their long fronds stretched outwards to provide small spaces of shade in the otherwise blinding light. There was no shade over the pit though, Copper noticed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slinking over to the edge of the circular patch of sand, Copper lowered her head and sniffed at the ground. Something faint that reminded her of Tarantula was there, maybe Sandstone too, though she wasn’t sure. Glancing back, Copper opened her mouth to ask what they were doing when it dropped open in surprise.</span>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mamba was gone. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“MAM-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s shout was abruptly cut off as something careened into her side, knocking the breath from her lungs and sending her flying into the sand in the middle of a cloud of dust. Copper writhed to the side, flinging sand in all directions with her powerful wings as she tried to right herself so that she could figure out what was going on and who was attacking her. Just as she got onto her feet, however, a hard talon crushed onto her shoulder and forced her back again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Watch for the tail!” A shout rang in her ears and Copper turned, glimpsing a barbed tail as it was flung towards her heart. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Stop it! </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper’s mind screamed at her and her talons sprang outward, grabbing her attacker’s tail and flinging it away from her. It sent up a spray of sand as it bounced off the ground, and Copper yelped as a claw raked across her snout whens she tried to scramble away a second time. Talons closed around her jaws, forcing them shut, and her head was shoved into the sand. Something heavy pressed onto her ribs, and she gasped for breath, her mind whirling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I guess that’s not too terrible,” came Mamba’s voice from above her. Suddenly the weight was lifted off of her side, and Copper shook the dust from her scales before scrambling to her feet on wobbly talons. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could have killed me!” she snapped at Mamba, stamping a talon in the sand and glaring at the larger SandWing. A few drops of blood leaked from the scratch she’d received on her snout.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw c’mon, I wouldn’t have let you die,” Mamba clucked, shaking out his wings. His tail curled in the sand near his talons, and when Copper looked closer at it she realized that the barbed tip had been wrapped up in thick cloth, which was almost exactly the same color as his scales. “Even if something somehow slipped, we have the Brightsting cactus right here,” Mamba added, flicking Copper with a wing. “Quit your worryin’, lass.” He grinned at her, and Copper leveled a glare at her mentor in return. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then she lunged. Using her head like a battering ram, she hurtled into Mamba’s exposed stomach and knocked him backwards, stretching her talons out at the same time to try and pin him to the sand like he had done. The SandWing grunted, kicking her with his talons. One caught the side of her face, and the other dug into her stomach. Copper let out a choked cough and her body swayed to the side, but as she fell she swiped at Mamba’s snout with her claws, drawing a few lines of crimson over his nose. His head snapped backwards and he grunted again, but with lightning-quick movements he was back on his feet and pounced on Copper, pinning her to the ground a second time with his razor-sharp claws.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s better.” He smiled down at her. “I believe you might get the hang of it yet.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fantastic,” Copper coughed again, spitting out a mouthful of sand and twisting her neck so that she could see Mamba’s face more clearly. “Glad to hear that I haven’t disappointed you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba chuckled and his talons released, leaving Copper to right herself again while he sat back and watched. “You know...I have a few ideas for you,” he stated once she was back on her feet. “You won’t be able to rely on those scales all the time, but if you ever can…” her mentor paused, then shrugged. “You never know. But your style could turn out to be quite unexpected.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unexpected?” Copper echoed, tilting her head to the side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba nodded. “Unexpected,” he repeated with a satisfied nod, as if he’d just solved some kind of complicated puzzle. “Every dragon tribe has its style of fighting, but you might be able to work up your own code with those scales of yours. And if you learn to stab like a SandWing, even though you don’t have the barb it throws dragons off. Understand?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper didn’t know what to say at first. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I remember when Mother used to practice with me--her style must be the SkyWing style. I never thought of it that way, that all the tribes have different styles. But it makes sense. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She glanced at Mamba.</span>
  <em>
    <span> And if I learn both and mix them up, he’s saying that it’ll give me the advantage in a fight.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper’s eyes lit up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, show me,” she said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba tilted his wings to the side, showing her how the sun bounced off his scales. It was hard to tell, but he seemed to be trying to aim the most of the glare at her eyes. “With your scales, you could blind your opponents by doing that. All you'd need to do is practice your aim, and you’ll be able to blind your opponents so that they can’t hit you and you can hit them more.” He grinned. “They’ll never see it coming.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I never thought about blinding anyone intentionally, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper thought, staring at the sand in front of her talons.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Mother only ever taught me how to hide it...I never considered how it might actually be useful to use in a fight. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper shook her head, then tilted her wings forward like Mamba had done. It was harder than she thought it would be, trying to angle the sunlight off of her reflective scales and into her teacher's eyes. It took some time as she carefully shifted her wings this way and that, but after a bit of fiddling with the angle Mamba hissed and looked away, lifting a wing to shield his eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like that?” Copper asked innocently. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup,” he grunted, eyes tightly closed. “Right about like that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper lowered her wings, shrinking the glare from her scales as she knew how to do so well before turning her attention to Mamba. The SandWing looked up as soon as the glare in his eyes had disappeared, grinned, and flicked Copper with the back of his tail. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was good,” he said with a quick nod. Next…” Her mentor stood, and began to slowly pace in a circle around Copper before stopping on her left side. “Your tail.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about it?” Copper twisted around to pick it up and looked at it, all copper and boring and completely harmless. “I don't got a special barb like all you real SandWings do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So?” Mamba’s answer surprised her, and Copper stared at him for a moment in confusion as he continued, waving away her words like fog. “It's not always about the direct consequence of what you do, it's about getting your opponent to </span>
  <em>
    <span>think</span>
  </em>
  <span> that what you do will result in the same ‘normal’ consequence. That make sense?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper stared at Mamba. “You want me to act like stabbing them with my tail will actually kill them, because it'll scare them if I pretend that I'm a real SandWing like the rest of you guys?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Exactly.” Mamba nodded. “You’ll scare another dragon pretty good if you do something like that, barb or not, something like that can buy you some time or get your opponent to back off. That could save your life, Copper, that’s why it’s important.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, I suppose that survival could be helpful,” Copper remarked, earning herself another smack upside the head via Mamba’s tail. “Sorry,” she added quickly, ducking her head in apology before her teacher could bellow at her, like it seemed he was about to. “Could I try again with the mirror-thing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba blew a long sigh of smoke out his nostrils, then shook his head and gestured for Copper to stand on the other side of the circle with a wing. “Get over there,” he ordered. “You got one shot. Don’t mess up.” As Copper moved to obey, she heard Mamba’s voice continue over her shoulder. “Fight good, cause after this I’m bringing in the dragonets.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds exciting.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba growled warningly, and Copper quickly sunk into something of an attack position with a soft snarl of her own. Mamba began pacing around the ring and she followed suit, the two dragons turning around each other in small circles until the SandWing suddenly whipped around and attacked. Copper ducked and rolled to the side, throwing her wings up to try and blind him as she had been instructed to earlier. Unfortunately, she didn’t aim quite right, and Mamba pounced on her easily, throwing her into the sand and wrapping his talons around her throat. Growling, Copper tried again, wriggling one wing free and aiming the light from her scales at Mamba’s eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>This time it worked. Mamba hissed and reared his head, jaws snapping as the bright light struck his eyes, and as he did Copper took the opportunity to aim a kick at his stomach with her hind talons. Her claws hit scales and Mamba swayed to the side while he tried to keep his head twisted away from the awful brilliance, his tail lashing furiously. His talons loosened around her neck, but he didn’t release, pulling up his wings to try and shield his eyes so that he could win the fight. Before he could, however, Copper started pummeling his stomach with her hind talons. One of her back talons somehow hooked around his wing when she tried to pull it back and dragged her mentor to the side, knocking him off balance. He toppled over in a cloud of dust, and before he could pounce again Copper righted herself and darted to the other side of the ring. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It really does work!” she laughed, sitting down to watch the dust settle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba shook the dust from his scales and rose easily to his feet, surprisingly dignified for his defeat and eyeing Copper with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He was going way, way easy on me, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she realized suddenly, annoyed at herself for thinking she had actually beat her mentor in a fight. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Of course I’d never defeat a trained Outclaw. Not in a million years. And he didn’t even use his tail. Or his hind legs. Or his fire…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well done,” Mamba congratulated, a small smile curving up from the corners of his mouth as he slowly approached his trainee, then sat down in front of her. “A little sloppy, but that’s nothing you can’t fix. I’ll show you the tips.” He paused, glancing at the oasis, then nodded to himself. “You’ll be a warrior in no time, Copper.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” Copper could hardly believe her ears. Her, a warrior in the Outclaws? The dragonet that couldn’t even keep up with her own mother, a fighter? Always too late, a soldier? It didn’t seem possible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Mamba simply nodded, black eyes shimmering confidently. “You heard me,” he said. “You’ll be a warrior soon enough, just you watch.” The SandWing paused, eyes narrowing slightly when he saw the skeptical expression on Copper’s face. She opened her mouth to protest, but Mamba stopped her before she could say anything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing’s impossible, lass,” he reprimanded her with a light growl, though surprisingly his voice was far more gentle than she had ever heard from him before. Mamba’s eyes softened, just for a moment. “That’s where you’ll trip up more than anywhere else, if you think this is impossible. Don’t be afraid to believe in yourself. If I say you can do it, then you can.” Then just as quickly as this strange gentleness had appeared, it was gone. Mamba’s voice changed again, now harsher and louder as it had been before.</span>
</p><p><span>“Right!” he declared, nodding as if he hadn’t just shown even a hint of softness and they had merely been discussing war tactics, leaving Copper to mull over everything that had been said as he suddenly reared up on his hind legs, wings flaring on either side of his body. Slowly and a bit awkwardly because he was on two legs, the SandWing spun around so that he faced the tents, then released a commanding roar in the direction of the Outclaw portion of the city. Copper jumped, startled, then settled down again and tilted her head to the side in curiosity. </span><em><span>Is he calling the dragonets? </span></em><span>She wondered, watching the structures for signs of movement with her blood-red eyes. </span><em><span>I bet that’s what he’s doing.</span></em> <em><span>This is going to be fun.</span></em></p><p>
  <span>Sure enough, before the echoes had even ceased a small SandWing snout poked out of the first tent, followed by the rest of what Copper recognized to be Roadrunner’s body as she slipped outside and began trotting towards the circle. A moment later, the twins appeared several tents further down, followed by Tarantula who was right behind them, and a few minutes after that Copper spotted Sandstone loping towards the circle in a clumsy gallop as well. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Roadrunner was the first to arrive, grinning at Copper as she stepped down into the circle. “So, we get to see how the fast one fights,” she remarked, sitting down to examine her talons. “This should be an interesting show.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper wasn’t sure how to answer and in the end decided not to, keeping her eyes on the others as they approached. Next arrived the twins and Tarantula, who were chatting with each other as they reached the pit. When they reached the edge of the pit their conversation ceased immediately, and they each acknowledged Copper with a nod. “Hey Copper,” the twins said in unison, exchanging smirks when they saw the surprise on her face. </span>
  <em>
    <span>How do they do that? Do they plan that ahead of time? To scare other dragons? </span>
  </em>
  <span>She watched them settle down next to Roadrunner, exchanging glances with her before they turned back to Copper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unlike the others, Tarantula was a positive firework of excitement. “We get to train with her!?” she squeaked, bouncing from talon to talon in her enthusiasm. “This is gonna be great! I can’t wait! I bet she’s awesome! Remember last night? SO FAST!” Copper felt a little overwhelmed by the dragonet’s enthusiasm, but managed to smile politely at her as the other SandWings assembled themselves into a semi-circle around her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unsurprisingly enough, Sandstone was the last to arrive. He found the edge of the circle near where Roadrunner was sitting, attempted to jump down, and promptly tripped over his front talons and somersaulted into her. Roadrunner leaped aside with an indignant squawk, narrowly avoiding getting squashed and smacking into the twins instead, who both growled at her and shoved her aside into the cackling Tarantula. The second-to-smallest SandWing was red in the face from laughing so hard, and hit the ground in a heap of giggles as Roadrunner crashed into her and sent the both of them rolling across the sand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone was blushing furiously with embarrassment as he righted himself, and tried awkwardly to apologize to Roadrunner as she marched back to her spot with a growl of irritation. Tarantula took a little longer to get up, still laughing as she was, but by the time she did the dust had nearly settled again. Copper stared at the dragonets, open-mouthed, though Mamba seemed to be much more amused than surprised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Got yourself a comfortable spot, Sandstone?” he asked finally, black eyes glinting in the morning light as he locked eyes with the embarrassed dragonet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, yeah…s-sorry about that...” Sandstone sheepishly plopped down on the sand a little ways away from everyone else, especially Roadrunner, unable to meet the gazes of his friends. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper noted with surprise the sympathy on the other dragonets’ faces. The twins looked at Sandstone and then at each other, wings twitching as if they were talking to each other without saying anything. Tarantula, once she’d calmed down, eyed Sandstone with a compassionate eye and invited him to come sit with her with the flick of her tail. Even Roadrunner, once she’d shook all the dust from her scales, had a sort of softness in her gaze when she looked over at Sandstone as he plodded over to Tarantula’s side.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They look up to him...even though he’s so clumsy. They know he’d protect them no matter what.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper sighed. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I wonder what it would have been like to grow up here...I would have friends, I would have seen Dad...We could have been a real family. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Her thoughts were broken off by Mamba’s bellow, which rattled her skeleton like a sand grain in a drinking flask--an impressively loud sound from such an unimpressively-sized SandWing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who wants to fight Copper first?” he shouted, grinning as he looked over his trainees. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Immediately, five dragonet talons shot into the air, even Sandstone’s.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll do it, I’ll do it!” They shrieked, shoving each other out of the way as they tried to get Mamba’s attention so that they could be the first to fight. Copper looked over them, suddenly feeling uneasy. Despite being smaller and younger than she was, the dragonets had already received a lot of training from Mamba. She wondered if they only raised their talons because she would be an easy takedown. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I guess I’ll have to prove them wrong, then. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper’s eyes narrowed determinedly, and she looked to Mamba to see what his choice was. Which dragonet would she have to fight first?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mmmmm…” The darker brown SandWing looked over the group, his expression thoughtful. It seemed like the mentor was putting an awful lot of time into the decision, but then after a long pause he pointed a black talon at the twins. “You. Drift. Go.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Drift and Dusty exchanges looks with each other, and Dust gave his twin an encouraging nod as Drift stepped forward and stopped in the center of the circle facing Copper. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then the younger SandWing dipped his head to her. Copper mimicked the gesture, then Drift motioned for her to step back while he himself did the same. The other dragonets backed out of the circle, hissing encouragement to their friend and sending up little puffs of dust with their fluttering wings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Quiet!” roared Mamba, spreading his wings for attention. The dragonets’ mouths snapped shut as their trainer leaped up onto a flat sandy area overlooking the pit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“On my word,” he ordered. “Ready...set...GO!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Drift and Copper immediately backed up to the edges of the circle, growling softly at each other. Copper did as she had done with Mamba and lowered her body so close to the ground that her chest nearly brushed the sand. Her scales flashed in the light, and even though she wasn’t trying to do anything with them Drift squinted his black eyes when he looked at her, blinking rapidly. His bared teeth, not yet worn from age, were sharp and white. Copper bared her fangs at him too when she realize it was difficult for him to keep his eyes on her brilliantly-reflective scales. He knew that he couldn’t look away if he wanted to win.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seconds later, the attack came. Without any warning, Drift suddenly turned and sprinted at Copper, and when she tried to dodge to the side he dug his talons into the sand and spun around, fast as lightning. Before she knew what was happening both her feet had been knocked out from under her, victim to Drift’s powerful tail, and her snout dug into the sand before she could even cry out. Copper yanked her face out of the sand, coughing up dust. She felt disoriented, but out of the corner of her eye she noticed Drift spinning around towards her, preparing to attack again. Just as he leaped Copper rolled onto her back, kicking up her talons and throwing her wings up in an attempt to blind Drift.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The reflection trick missed, unfortunately, but her claws hit their mark. One talon hit Drift’s neck and he pitched to the side, hitting the sand a few feet away. She scrambled to her feet, but not before Drift had righted himself. He pounced at her a second time, but this time Copper was a little more prepared. She ducked and rolled towards him, and Drift’s wings were too slow to unfurl. He hit the sand with a yowl and Copper took her chance, leaping at the littler SandWing and trying to get her talons around his neck so that she could pin him to the sand. Unfortunately, however, Copper forgot one important thing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just as she was about to hit him Drift looked up and saw her, only a dragon’s length away from hitting him. A growl rumbled in his throat and he twisted violently, sending a powerful sandy tail whipping towards her with brutal force. There was no time to react. The cloth-colored end hit Copper’s chest with a loud thump and sent her sprawling. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“DEAD!” Mamba’s bellow was loud enough to wake the neighboring Mud Kingdom, ringing in Copper’s ears as she hit the sand and sent up a billowing cloud of dust upon impact. She lifted her head coughing, and she saw Drift bow to his cheering friends. Instead of joining the other dragonets in their celebrating, however, he scrambled over to Copper to try and help her up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good job,” he told her as he reached her side, offering a talon to her. “That was fun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper nodded, though she wasn’t sure that she agreed on his idea of fun. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m pretty sure I’ve breathed in more sand than air, I’m covered in dust, and everything hurts. How is this fun?</span>
  </em>
  <span> After she’d gotten over having the wind knocked out of her, however, she managed to answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> “Yeah. Way to surprise me.” She turned to join the other dragonets and found Mamba instead, who had materialized behind the two dragonets in the clearing dust.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, what do you need to work on?” he asked, eyeing his trainees. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I missed with the mirror trick you showed me, I need to work on my aim,” Copper said quickly, voicing the worries that her mind was already dwelling on. No way was she going to be the laughingstock of these dragonets. “And also, it’s hard to do it without a lot of time. I gotta figure out how to do it faster.” Mamba nodded, seemingly satisfied with her answer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Drift?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I went for the kill too early. I need to work on timing it better and being more patient,” the other dragonet decided, glancing between Mamba and his twin as if eager to return to his friends. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The SandWing again nodded. “Good!” he boomed. “Now work on it!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And Copper did. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Days passed quickly in the heat of the Scorpion Den, whirling like a sandstorm into weeks, then months of time. The dragonets grew older and more skilled, training relentlessly under Mamba’s watchful eye with him and one another. Sometimes they fought one-on-one, sometimes they were pitted against each other in groups of two, sometimes there were fights in which all of the dragonets battled each other to see who could come out on top. One thing was for certain--the dragonets’ training was never the same way twice, Mamba made sure of that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> At first, things were difficult. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Really </span>
  </em>
  <span>difficult. Copper rarely managed to succeed with what the others came to call her “Trick of Mirrors,” and she was constantly beaten by the others in the pit. Every day she got a beating from a different dragonet, it seemed, and she’d go home sore and exhausted with a voice rough and painful from the dust she’d breathed during the day. Mamba refused to make anything easy for Copper either, and drilled her relentlessly on how to improve her moves during their training sessions. Sandstone told her that her troubles were caused by the fact that she’d started later than he and his friends had, but Copper was determined not to let that hold her back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She made it a habit to ask Mamba for extra help every day, begging the older SandWing for advice on how to perform this move or that whenever he had a spare moment. Though he was a rough teacher Copper knew he cared about the dragonets’ success, and she was often seen badgering him about new moves in the evenings and pulling him towards the pit so they could practice. She asked Mamba about tricks her mother had taught her, refined those and learned new ones the “SandWing way,” as she came to call it, practicing and practicing until her talons were sore and she could scarcely keep her eyes open long enough to find her tent so she could sleep at night. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took awhile, but eventually Copper’s efforts began to pay off. She began winning fights with the dragonets, and gradually learned how to work with them when they were placed on teams together. She also became extremely skilled at her Trick of Mirrors after countless hours of practicing the move on palm trees and her father’s tent, and often used it to gain the advantage in the dragonets’ daily scuffles in the pit. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tent Mirage had promised Copper was finished in just a few days and she moved into it with her father’s help, spending the cool mornings and evenings training with Mamba and the other dragonets and the hot afternoons talking and hanging out with her friends. They would all become warriors soon, once the younger ones were full-grown and could fight with the rest of the adults. Mirage had told Copper that she could become an Outclaw soldier before the other dragonets if she wanted because she was a year older than they were, but she decided not to in favor of staying with the SandWings that had come to be her best friends. They were a team now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s skills, however, were not the only things that changed with the passing of time in the Scorpion Den. She felt like an entirely new dragon, as if the old Copper were someone else and they were only acquaintances that had met a long time ago and scarcely remembered who the other was. It felt strange, remembering her escape from the cave and her journey to the Scorpion Den, and dreams of her mother haunted her often at night. On the nights when sleep evaded her Copper often abandoned her tent to wander around camp; the Outclaw guards around the outskirts became used to seeing her every now and then after a while, her copper scales flashing in the light of the torches as she paced between the tents. She often wondered what had happened to Polar on those lonely walks; what would have been if Fly hadn’t died, what could have been if she knew then what she did now. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other dragonets learned to recognize when she’d been through an especially rough night, and even Mamba would look at her with a sort of sympathy when she showed up to training in the mornings barely awake and bleary-eyed. At least they didn’t pity her, something Copper appreciated more than they knew. And they didn’t ask questions. Part of Copper knew it was because they already knew the answers, but she never spoke to them about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>During the daytime in the Scorpion Den, however, Copper became a very different dragon. The nights were one thing, but Copper’s new-found friends gave her a confidence that Fly had never been able to in that old cave where she had felt like nothing but a burden. Here with the Outclaws she felt like she had a purpose, a purpose to protect the citizens of the Scorpion Den and the SandWings of her adoptive kingdom, not to mention her friends from Sandstone’s gang. Mamba’s training and encouragement helped tremendously as well; several month’s hard training had made Copper into a courageous fighter indeed. Her new status as an Outclaw and the daughter of Mirage did something miraculous for her self-esteem as well, though the dragonets certainly made sure that she never got too cocky about it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But the best part of being in the Scorpion Den was that Copper finally got to know her father. After years of believing that he was dead Mirage was right there for her, taking time every evening to spend with her when the other dragonets went home to their parents and he returned from a long day in his tent, working to keep the Scorpion Den’s dragons from tearing each other apart. He told Copper stories from old SandWing folklore and even one or two SkyWing legends that he’d heard from Fly, spinning out grand tales in his gruff voice worn away by years of fighting before they retired to bed. Mirage made it a point to spend some of each and every day with his daughter, even if he could only manage a few minutes’ training with her, and he insisted on teaching her a few tricks of his own with the excuse “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am </span>
  </em>
  <span>your father after all, and three moons I’ve been waiting </span>
  <em>
    <span>seven </span>
  </em>
  <span>years for this…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper knew how hard he was trying to make up for the years that he hadn’t been there for her, and if anything it only caused their bond grow stronger. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Things seemed good. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But of course...that could only last so long. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guys, I’m bored.” Copper stepped over the sandy piles of sleeping dragonets, stopping at Tarantula’s nose and poking her on the snout with a talon. “C’mon, let’s go do something!” The twins, sleeping almost nose to nose with the other dragonet, opened their eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up, Copper,” grumbled one, Dusty. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re trying to sleep,” Drift added. “Leave us alone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As usual, Copper would not be deterred. She smacked Dusty with her tail, earning herself a nip which she pretended not to notice, then shoved Drift with a talon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No way!” she told them. “My dad’s finally letting me go into the real city by myself. It’s so boring here, and I wanna play tag somewhere cool for once. Let’s go!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s go!” Both twins mimicked her in teasing tones, though they seemed slightly more interested now that the idea of horsing around had been brought up. “Let’s go! Let’s go!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, c’mon you two!” Tarantula stood up, glaring down her snout at the almost-identical SandWings. “It wouldn’t hurt either of you to get some exercise. Get up already!” Copper gave the youngest dragonet a grateful look, then turned and smacked Dusty with her tail again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come </span>
  <em>
    <span>on</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” she growled. “I know you want to come!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Well </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> don’t,” grumbled a fourth voice. “So shut up! I need my beauty sleep.” Two curls of smoke revealed Roadrunner’s grayish head, peeking out from beneath her wing. Copper glared at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look who’s grumpy today.” Copper accidentally stepped on Dusty’s wing as she tramped over to where the smallest SandWing was stretched out, shoving the other dragonet’s wing away from her face with a talon as she tried in vain to hide beneath it. “Roadrunner!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ouch!” Dusty yelped as Copper’s claws dug into his wing, jumping to his feet and snapping at Copper’s flank in retaliation. “I’m up already! Sheesh!” His twin stood up as well, eyeing Tarantula and grumbling his displeasure. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dusty’s howl woke up the last member of the team, who jerked upright with a sleepy “Whooza? What’s goin’ on?” Sandstone blinked groggily and swung his large head around, noting the positions of the other dragonets one by one. “Are...are we getting up now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Roadrunner growled at the same time Tarantula nodded. The twins faced off with Copper, who was baring her teeth at them with a tooth mark on her left side from where Dusty had bitten her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s head snapped around, and she faced Sandstone for a moment with a blank expression before she turned and looked at Roadrunner. “I dunno. Looks like someone isn’t. Anyone else want to stay behind?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The twins exchanged glances and shrugged; Dusty’s glare melted away and was soon replaced with a good-natured grin. They were always prepared for games. Sandstone quickly nodded without any hesitation, always ready to join the others. Tarantula was already bouncing with excitement. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright.” Copper nodded, satisfied. “Let’s get going then. Who wants to be it?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Might as well be the one that woke us up,” muttered Roadrunner, who was suddenly standing next to Sandstone with her tail curled neatly around her front talons. Even though she seemed annoyed about the whole situation, Copper could tell that she was excited for the games ahead just like the rest of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Those that don’t come don’t have a say.” Tarantula frowned at Roadrunner, but she only shrugged. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who said I wasn’t coming?” the smallest SandWing’s devil-may-care voice was irritating, especially after all the complaining about getting up, but Copper decided it wasn’t worth arguing over. She pushed past the two girls to take her place at the front of the group.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, whatever. I’ll be it. Tarantula, do you want to count down this time?” The youngest SandWing beamed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You bet!” Tarantula turned from glaring at Roadrunner, straightening herself so that she stood as tall as possible with her head held high. “Three...Two...One...GO!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the sound of the final howl Copper’s friends exploded from the shade like sand-colored fireworks, scattering in all directions and disappearing in flashes of yellow and tan between the tents, their talons flying. Because the territory to cover was so large and the dragonets so small, these games often took all afternoon and sometimes lasted well into the evening. Nobody ever complained, though, despite all that the dragonets had to say about being tired. They were always ready for games.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper counted down the usual ten seconds so that the others had time to find their hiding places, then snapped open her wings and began flying in the direction she’d seen the twins running to. Dusty and Drift were good at hiding, but because they almost always insisted on staying together they tended to be a bit easier to find than the others. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The SandWings generally avoided flying around the city, even in the more spacious areas like the Outclaw area, but because of Copper’s SkyWing build she was able to manage the tight corners in ways that the others couldn’t. It was a handy advantage to have, especially because her flashy scales meant that the dragonets could see her from miles away at noon in the scorching desert. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the end Copper didn’t fly very far, only to the edge of the Outclaw part of the city. Once she reached the border she dropped to the ground, folding her enormous wings in by her sides and scurrying towards where she thought the twins might be trying to hide in the expansive Scorpion Den. They were the best at blending in with the crowds, so Copper decided to check the markets first. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s few trips into the Scorpion now were far different from the initial tour she’d received and her first errands with Mamba. The residents had long since been made aware that the funny copper-colored SkyWing-looking dragon in their midst was in fact an Outclaw, and they usually tried to give her a wide berth when she passed through the crowds. Their fear didn’t bother Copper like it used to; she knew that without the Outclaws the Scorpion Den would be nothing more than a bloodbath as it once had been. Now instead of nervously dodging around dragons that didn’t move for her, she moved confidently though, growling at anyone who stayed in her way for too long. This in particular was helped by Copper’s (finally, as far as she was concerned) full-grown size and bizarre appearance; by now the dragons scurried away from her in waves so she could pass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She no longer minded the whispers of the other dragons speculating on her, Copper's head was held high and proud as she shoved and jostled her way through the crowded streets. Mirage had never been ashamed of her, and she had learned not to be ashamed of herself either. She stretched her neck up and scanned the dragons clamoring through the streets, her blood-red eyes narrowed and trying not to notice the dragons that cringed away from her bright scales. She didn’t see any dragons that looked like the twins, but just before she moved on she thought she spotted a pair of smaller SandWings ducking through the crowds. They were quite a ways ahead, and in the fierce light it was impossible to know for sure they were the twins or not, but so far it was her only lead. Copper glanced at the sidestreets, deciding that it would be easier to catch up to the pair if she took one instead of trying to fight her way through the crowds. Even though the dragons did try to get out of her way, there were often too many SandWings for that to be possible, especially when she wanted to hurry. The tails were also a serious hazard to consider.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper looked for an entrance to one of the sidestreets, and bolted down the first one she saw. The less-crowded walkway was much easier to navigate and Copper quickly sped up to a gallop, trying to estimate where she’d have to get back onto the main street in order to catch the two SandWings as she did. Because her route was out of the main market area most of the dragons were in a hurry like she was, and her slender form easily wove in and out of the dragons hurrying up the street. Copper ran faster and faster, dodging this way and that until copper scales were a metallic blur. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ha! I’ll show those twins! </span>
  </em>
  <span>She thought smugly. </span>
  <em>
    <span>They’re no match for my--</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The thought was cut short as a SandWing appeared in front of Copper, too quickly for her to stop in time. She smashed into his chest and fell back, hitting the hard street with a thump that knocked the breath out of her lungs and sent her spinning. Copper looked up as she tried to suck in a breath of air, her smirk shifting into a snarl as a pale yellow SandWing head with a tan crest slammed a talon down on her chest, pinning her down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You…” he hissed, black eyes sparking with hatred. “Finally I’ve found you, you wretched little SkyWing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper was about to snap at him, demand that he tell her who he thought he was, when she saw something on the dragon’s chest. Something that was both vaguely familiar and vaguely horrifying. It was a scar, so deep and long and old that it seemed to divide the SandWing’s chest nearly in two. A sharp angry face, covered in russet speckles, glared at her. A scarred tail flicked back and forth over his back. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Then she remembered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>
    <em>Y</em>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span>ou.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Copper shoved the SandWing’s talon off of her chest with a strength she didn’t know she had, writhing onto her feet and pushing the SandWing away from her with all her might. Her blood-red eyes narrowed into furious slits, and looking down the street she saw that it had somehow become empty. Meanwhile the other dragon stumbled back a little, surprised that his little opponent had managed to actually shove him, but then he regained his composure and sneered at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s right, you little accident,” he snarled, “it’s me. I’ve finally found the runt that I’ve been trying to kill for the past four months.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You MURDERED my mother!” Copper snarled at him, her voice rising nearly to a shriek. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you my friend. You’ll pay for killing him, hybrid mistake!” Fury bubbled in Copper’s blood, and her talons clenched themselves into fists, while the SandWing seemed to be doing very much the same. He bared his teeth and her, and she curled her lips back as well in a vicious snarl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not if I kill you first.” Copper’s voice was dark and vicious, and she spat out the words as if they were poison. The SandWing smiled bitterly at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll see about that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper didn’t know how the streets had been cleared, but then again she didn’t care if it was coincidence or the SandWing’s doing. The world narrowed down to her and her enemy, and the stretch of dusty cobblestone between them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t wait for him come after her. Copper attacked him first, claws slashing, wings spread, jaws agape in order to blast her opponent with flames. She didn’t think about what to do, or how to do it, her mind was too cloudy to remember her lessons with Mamba. She wanted this SandWing dead, however it happened. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And it was a near-fatal mistake. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The SandWing neatly dodged her fire, rolling to the side while his venomous tail flew up at her chest. In the moment of panic that followed, Copper’s mind cleared from the blinding fury in an instant. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>This fight was </span>
  <em>
    <span>real. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Someone was going to die. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And for Fly, for Mirage, Copper couldn’t let it be her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tails weren’t covered this time. It was kill or be killed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper hurled herself into the sand at the last moment, barely dodging the SandWing’s tail which hit one of her horns before it bounced off and hit the dirt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Better watch out,” the pale dragon snarled, though he was unable to completely contain his surprise. He leaped to his feet and released a blast of flames towards her face, but Copper ducked and rolled to the side, throwing up her wings when she saw the SandWing bounding towards her. From that distance she could hardly have missed, and her opponent twisted his head to the side with a hiss of pain as the bright light hit his eyes. Copper took the opportunity to attack again and leaped into the sky, flapping her wings once before somersaulting into a dive that landed her directly on top of the dragon’s back. The SandWing, nearly blind from Copper’s Trick of Mirrors, bucked to the side and let out a furious snort at the unexpected appearance of his opponent on his back. When that didn’t work he began leaping and twisting around madly, unable to use his tail lest he should miss and stab himself in the back, his wings splayed out awkwardly on either side of his body. Copper hissed and dug her talons into her opponent’s scales, trying to get a good hold on the SandWing’s neck so she could finish him before he dislodged her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Too late. The yellow dragon twisted his head to look at her, then suddenly flung himself to the ground and rolled over, trying to crush Copper under his back. She locked her jaws around the base of the SandWing’s wing and he howled, but didn’t stop. He was determined to kill Copper, whatever the cost. She yelped as her tail was smashed under the dragon’s back and finally gave up, scrambling away from the SandWing... </span>
</p><p>
  <span>...And right into her enemy’s talons. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“AHA!” The dragon reared up and slammed a massive talon down on Copper’s neck, pinning her to the ground and drawing a small line of crimson where his sharp talons caught her scales. Black eyes locked on dull red ones, he raised his tail, blood dripping from the claw marks Copper had left on his shoulders and back. His right wing, the one that she had bitten, was limp and bleeding, and the pain only seemed to add to the fury in his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m going to die, </span>
  </em>
  <span>was all Copper could think. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Dad will never find me out here. He’ll never know what happened to me...</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Say goodnight,” the SandWing hissed, swinging his tail toward Copper’s heart. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“NO!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before the dragon’s tail could hit its mark a sandy blur crashed into the SandWing, tearing him away from Copper and throwing him to the hard ground several feet away. Copper scrambled to her feet as the weight was dragged away from her body, eyes widening in amazement. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Drift!” she cried. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sure enough, the older twin was facing the SandWing, teeth bared in a ferocious snarl and feet planted firmly in the dust. The other dragon stared at him for a long time before he slowly rose to his feet, lips curled back to expose his fangs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The accident has friends,” he hissed, his entire body shaking with rage as he spoke. “I’ll kill you too, dragonet. I’ll kill both of you.” Copper scrambled to her feet and ran to her friend’s side, baring her teeth at the SandWing in a sharp-fanged snarl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go ahead and try.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The SandWing leaped. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper and Drift both dodged in opposite directions, letting the massive dragon fly between them. They had done drills together as a team with Mamba, and they knew how to work together. The SandWing landed and whirled around, eyes flickering between his two opponents. He was outnumbered now; he knew it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But that wouldn’t stop him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a roar the enormous dragon sprinted at his smaller opponent, his jaws snapping shut just inches away from Drift’s tail as he darted away. The twin hadn’t yet outgrown Copper, but he was still one of the most agile dragonets in the group and knew how to dodge. He spun around to the left side of the SandWing, and Copper pounded in on the right. Their opponent swung his neck around and tried to bite Drift, but Copper pounced on his tail and bit it as hard as she could in the sensitive area near the tip. He let out a roar of pain, whirling around and snapping at her face, but Drift leaped onto his back with a shriek, throwing him off balance before he could strike. Copper took her chance, jumping up onto the SandWing’s neck and hooking her talons around his horns. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The combined weight of the dragonets was finally enough. The huge dragon tripped over his talons and toppled over, hitting the ground with an earth-jarring crash and a roar that made her ears ring. Copper avoided the falling body this time, shaking free and whipping around to lock her claws around the dragon’s neck before he could recover and try to attack a third time. Drift balanced himself on the SandWing’s side, holding him down while Copper locked her blood red eyes on her enemy’s pure black ones. Slowly she squeezed her talons tighter and tighter around the dragon’s neck, blood trickling down from a cut on her forehead and turning her vision red. Copper felt her entire body shudder with hatred as she looked into that dragon’s eyes, all the fear and guilt and pain of what he’d done crashing down on her and turning into a rising, bubbling mass of </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For an accident like me--” her voice cracked with loathing as she spoke, “--I’m sure glad I’m the one that’s going to kill you. ”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Drift’s head snapped up in alarm. “Kill him?” the dragonet’s voice trembled with uncertainty. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I watched that bastard kill my mother,” Copper snarled, not looking away from the eyes of the SandWing she now had pinned to the dusty cobblestone. “He deserves nothing less than a painful death.” Her claws tightened and the SandWing choked, before she let up. “And I’d be happy to provide that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The SandWing looked up at her; silent, his breath straining against her grip around his throat. Sparks of fear curled around his eyes but he said nothing, his talons lying limply in the sand. He knew that he had lost.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper.” Drift’s voice was uncharacteristically soft. Finally Copper turned her head just slightly, not loosening her grip for a second as she turned her glare on the twin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What!?” Drift only shook his head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper, don’t do it. Don’t kill him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And why not!?” Copper snarled. She was so angry that she didn’t notice her grip tightening around the SandWing’s throat until he let out a choked gasp, his weakened talons grabbing uselessly at hers. Turning back to him she shook his neck, eyes burning with hatred. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why shouldn’t I kill him, Drift!? Why!? Fly meant everything to me! Everything! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?” Her voice rose into a shriek, body shaking with anger clear to her stinging wingtips. “He stole my mother from me! He tried to </span>
  <em>
    <span>kill </span>
  </em>
  <span>me! There’s no reason that I shouldn’t destroy him now and </span>
  <em>
    <span>end </span>
  </em>
  <span>this!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guys?” A third voice appeared, its tone hesitant and almost fearful. The two dragonets turned and saw that Dusty had arrived, eyes round and anxious. “Guys? What’s going on?” Drift looked at Copper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t do it,” he whispered, shaking his head. “Don’t do it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s grip tightened, drawing another choked cough from the SandWing. “I will.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dusty!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Without another word the smaller twin rushed over, vaulting over the dragon’s body and throwing all of his weight into Copper’s side. Copper shrieked as she was torn away from the SandWing, clawing at thin air while Drift swiftly took her place holding down the big dragon with his claws and tail. Copper and Dusty hit the ground, rolling over and over as a cloud of dust rose into the air from where they’d fallen. Dusty was the first to scramble to his feet and immediately sprinted forward, throwing himself in front of Copper when she staggered to her feet and tried to attack the SandWing again. Drift tilted his head back, and a howl tore through the air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Moments later the rest of the dragonets arrived, racing from their hiding places towards the howl to find Dusty in a losing battle with Copper while Drift perched on top of the SandWing, face crinkled into an expression of worry as if he wanted to fight but couldn’t afford to leave the enormous dragon unattended. Sandstone realized what had happened before the others and rushed to help Dusty, placing himself in front of the smaller twin while Roadrunner spun around and bolted back to the Outclaw camp. Copper slammed into Sandstone and Dusty and Tarantula piled on top of her, forcing her to the ground while she cursed and bit and clawed at her friends. They held firm; Dusty held her neck down so that she couldn’t bite while Tarantula clung to her tail and Sandstone practically sat on her to make sure that she couldn’t get away again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reason meant nothing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reason was gone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>These weren’t her friends. These were her enemies. Anything that stopped her was her enemy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper could hardly hear their voices shouting at her; all she knew was the </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate </span>
  </em>
  <span>and the </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate </span>
  </em>
  <span>and the </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She had to get to the SandWing. She had to destroy him. Soon it would be too late; she had to get him </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper please, please stop,” There were tears in Sandstone’s eyes as he tried desperately to reach his friend. “Please...please just listen to us...I don’t want--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just shut up!” Copper violently twisted her neck around despite Dusty’s warning hiss. “You knew I had to kill him! You knew! You knew!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dusty looked even more beaten than the others, bleeding from scratches on his flanks and a torn ear, but still he quietly shook his head. “We couldn’t let you kill him. It’s not... ”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fly never would have wanted it,” Sandstone said suddenly, his choked voice hardly rising above a whisper. “She...She wanted you to be happy, Copper. That was all she ever wanted, why she kept you in that cave. So you would be safe. Killing him...it won’t make you happy, and it won’t bring her back…” Copper stared at Sandstone as his voice faded, eyes softening ever so slightly, but before she could say anything to him the downed SandWing spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds like the accident has some problems with self control,” the older dragon muttered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The softness vanished. Copper roared and swung around, throwing herself at the dragon and nearly dragging her friends across the cobblestone with her. The dragonets fought to hold her back, and in the end Copper couldn’t fight all three of them and they pulled her down again. The dragon snickered and bared his teeth at her, though before he could say anything more Dusty swiped a talon at his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up!” he snarled at the SandWing. “Who’s to say that Hyena won’t have you executed anyways!?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, look!” called Drift suddenly, pointing up with his talon. “She’s here! Hyena!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sure enough, a dark brown spot had appeared in the sky some ways away, growing closer and closer as the seconds passed. As they drew nearer, Copper could make out another grayish spot following the brown one, though she didn’t have to wait to know who it was. Roadrunner had finally returned with the Outclaw leader.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Moments later Hyena landed, a low growl reverberating in her throat. Dust billowed up from where her talons touched the dusty ground, forcing the dragonets to look away as the sand blew into their faces. Roadrunner dropped to the earth behind the Outclaw leader shortly after, panting hard with her tongue hanging limply from her jaw; it was obvious that she had wasted no time in getting help. Hyena didn’t wait for the dragonet and stalked over to where the larger SandWing lay, her black eyes narrowed in stern anger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened here?” she growled, looking up at Drift, who was perched on top of the SandWing, and Copper, who was pinned beneath the others.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He killed my mother!” Copper snarled, twisting her neck so that she could see Hyena. “He was the one that murdered her and forced me to come here!” She struggled fiercely, trying to stand, but the dragonets held her tight. Hyena’s hard gaze passed over her, then traversed over to Drift again. “Is this true?” she asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” The voice was not Drift’s, but Sandstone’s. He was nodding slowly, a horribly sad expression on his face as if he were trying very hard not to cry again. “I saw him come into the cave, and him and Fly fight. I didn’t see her die...but…” he abruptly stopped himself and looked away. Hyena turned from Sandstone to the downed SandWing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Drift, let him up,” she ordered. Drift reluctantly obeyed with a warning hiss at the bigger dragon, who rose to his talons looking outraged; though he remained silent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Roadrunner will escort you to my tent,” Hyena growled at him, nodding to the younger dragonet with her head. “I’ll deal with you later. And if you cause any, and I repeat </span>
  <em>
    <span>any, </span>
  </em>
  <span>trouble, you will not live to face your trial. Have I made myself clear?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The SandWing scowled, but he reluctantly allowed Drift and Roadrunner to lead him back towards the Outclaw part of town without so much as a sound. Hyena didn’t bother to watch them go, instead turning to the remaining dragonets, who were all still sitting on top of Copper and looking at each other as if unsure as to what they should do. “Sandstone, Dusty, Tarantula. You are to accompany Drift. Go.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But what about Co--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said go, dragonets.” The Outclaw’s tone was reprimanding; stern. The dragonets flinched, especially Sandstone, exchanging glances with each other before they climbed off of Copper and began running after Drift and the still-panting Roadrunner. Copper slowly stood, eyeing the retreating SandWing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let me go with them,” she said quietly. “I can help.” Hyena shook her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. You’re going to stay here with me.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said you’re staying, soldier!” Copper’s mouth immediately snapped shut as Hyena’s commanding snarl reached her ears, and she quickly shrunk down into a more submissive stance. It was the first time she had ever been referred to as a “soldier,” and had the circumstances been any better than this she might have felt proud about it, especially with how close the dragonets were to becoming fully-fledged Outclaws--but here? Now? Copper felt only anger and shame. Anger at the SandWing. Shame at her failure. But she kept her head bowed low, a sign of respect, eyes never meeting with those of her leader’s. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Walk with me.” Hyena seemed to decide that the dragonets were far enough away, and began strolling at a more leisurely pace towards the Outclaw part of the city. Copper hesitated for a moment, watching her leave, but after a moment she stood up and followed the larger SandWing down the street. It wasn’t like she had a choice, after all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>For the first few minutes there was only silence as the two dragons walked, punctuated by the occasional sigh from Hyena as if she was thinking about something important and didn’t want to be interrupted. Copper didn’t dare say anything before her superior did, especially after the tongue-lashing she’d just received, and contented herself to walk quietly in her own thoughts. She wasn’t sure she would have known what to say anyways, after all that had happened. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Finally, the great SandWing raised her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper.” Slowly, she turned to look at Hyena.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your friends did you more of a favor than you realize, Copper.” Copper’s expression darkened and she abruptly looked away, glaring at the ground. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How?” she hissed, struggling to maintain a respectful tone despite the anger raging through her body. “My mother is </span>
  <em>
    <span>dead </span>
  </em>
  <span>because of what he did. He deserved to die!” It was nearly impossible to keep her voice from rising, memories flashing through her mind of her mother, of Fly, limp on the cave floor because of </span>
  <em>
    <span>that dragon</span>
  </em>
  <span>. That dragon, who was still out there, alive because her friends couldn’t understand why he had to die. The dragonets, who couldn’t understand the horrible agony, the </span>
  <em>
    <span>nightmares </span>
  </em>
  <span>that had followed her here to the Ouclaws, that were still there because of a dragon that couldn’t listen, couldn’t stop, </span>
  <em>
    <span>wouldn’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>stop to see that Fly was only a dragon that loved her daughter and had done everything to protect her. She had done so much for Copper, only to be murdered by a horrible SandWing she didn’t even know in cold blood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyena calmly watched the seething Copper, unperturbed. “I’m not arguing with you,” she answered. “But you’re a good soldier, Copper, and I will not see you destroy yourself with bitterness, anger, and hatred. It is one thing to avenge someone in the name of honor or justice...” she narrowed her eyes as she continued, “and quite another to do it in the name of hatred and anger. Your friends risked everything to stop you, Copper. Not because they don’t care, but because they do. They realized what you did not--that you had let yourself become eaten with bitterness over your mother’s death.” Hyena stared straight ahead, emotionless. “I cannot have a soldier that is unable to rise above their emotions for the good of others. I cannot endanger others if you cannot learn to control yourself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her leader’s last statement was a hard blow, and Copper’s head slowly dropped as anger gave way again to embarrassment and shame. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I failed. I failed. I failed.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She hated to know that Hyena was right, and that instead of her friends failing her, she had instead failed them and herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I didn’t stop. I didn’t think. What have I done?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, Hyena.” Copper’s voice cracked as she spoke, biting her tongue so hard that it bled as she tried to force the tears back from her eyes. </span>
  <em>
    <span>An Outclaw does not cry, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she snarled to herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I will not become even more of a failure. </span>
  </em>
  <span>“I swear...I swear that I will not make the same mistake again. I'll learn, I promise. I’m sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyena smiled faintly. “I know you will learn,” she said. “Your father always believed in you, and because of him so do I. Everyone makes mistakes, even Outclaws, but the difference between a soldier and a normal dragon is that soldiers always learn from their mistakes.” Her tone grew more serious as she continued. “They learn...or they die.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper was quiet for a long time, staring at her talons as they walked. Finally, she gathered the courage to speak once she was sure that she would not cry if she did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I owe Drift...and the others an apology…” she said quietly. “Especially Drift. He saved my life. And the others...Sandstone...he reminded me of who I was; what I wanted. They didn’t deserve to be treated in the way that I treated them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyena nodded her approval. “Your mother would be proud,” she stated. Copper felt her spirits lift a little, finally able to look her leader in the eye as she continued. “Perhaps a life of danger is not what Fly desired for you, but you’re a good fighter and I know that she would be more than happy to see you doing so well.” Her ink-colored eyes glittered. “Your father certainly is.” She looked out at the path before them, then at Copper, expression shifting back into one of sterness and anger as she saw the SandWing being led up the street some ways ahead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Vermin,” she growled. “Let’s go take care of that scum now, shall we? The right way this time.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When they returned to camp, things were not the same as they were when Copper and the dragonets had left some time ago, and by the look of worry and surprise on Hyena’s face it had changed since even her departure. As they approached the center of the village she could see Mirage, Eburnean, Cactus, and Briar huddled by the entrance to Hyena’s tent, talking to each other in low tones. Cactus looked angry, Briar appeared to be utterly furious, and Mirage seemed to be trying to calm the both of them down without much success, for he looked enraged himself. Even Eburnean looked quite upset, which was especially unusual for the normally easy-going dragon. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Uh oh,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper thought, her quarrel with the SandWing temporarily forgotten. Whatever was happening here, it wasn’t good. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were Outclaws </span>
  <em>
    <span>everywhere</span>
  </em>
  <span>. And in the middle of the hottest part of the day, perhaps that was what made it the most frightening sight of all. The huge, battle-scarred SandWings who were normally asleep at this time were scurrying around the streets like mad; spears and armor flashed silver in the sunlight and someone was handing out satchels to those who didn’t have them. Some dragons were talking to each other as they ran down the dusty paths, looking worried or angry. Hyena grabbed one of the passing SandWings as he scurried past her, and demanded to know what was happening in a low growl. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s the IceWings!” the Outclaw told them between gasps for air, obviously having been in quite a hurry before he was stopped. “They’re coming this way...Thorn’s messengers say that there’s...entire army of them...flying towards the border.” The SandWing stopped himself with a cough, then continued. “Thorn’s army...bogged down in the SkyWing kingdom...territory scuffle...she’s asked the Outclaws for help...knows we can hold ‘em back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyena released the SandWing, who dipped his head and ran off before she could ask him anything more. “Copper, come with me,” the Outclaw ordered, her tone stern. “I don’t like the sound of this.” Copper nodded, heart thumping in her chest as she followed Hyena over to where her father was talking with the other Outclaw leaders. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage glanced up as Hyena and Copper approached, relief melting away his angered face in a heartbeat. “Thank the moons you’re alright!” He drew Copper into a hug and she leaned into him, closing her eyes for a minute before she opened them again and looked at Hyena, wanting to hear what the massive SandWing had to say. She was surveying the oasis around her, talons twitching, looking worried. Eburnean opened his mouth to explain what had happened, but Hyena raised a talon to silence him before he could say anything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I heard. How big is the army?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not as big as we first thought,” Briar answered. “They don’t seem to be from the Queen’s army. We think they’re here for the treasure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyena’s eyes narrowed. “They must have heard about the fight with the SkyWings. Alright...” The Outclaw scowled. “Northern scum. Eburnean, you and Cactus are going to stay here with me with a few Outclaws to keep the Den from going to chaos; Mirage, you and Briar take the North, East, and South sides of camp. That should give you enough dragons.” Hyena looked around. “Camel farts! Where’d Mamba go?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right here.” A voice answered. Mamba had materialized behind the group as per usual, though he wasn’t smiling as he usually was. Instead the SandWing looked to be quite serious, and for the first time ever as far as Copper knew he truly looked worried. “Am I to take the dragonets along?” he asked briskly. Hyena nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This will be their first fight, and make sure that the other ones are ready. Mirage, you and Briar are to fly out within the hour; Eburnean and Cactus, do whatever you need to to help them. Copper, go find the dragonets. We’ll have to deal with your friend later.” Copper opened her mouth to speak, but the look Hyena gave her stopped her before she could say anything, one that clearly said </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t tell your father.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She stiffened, meeting Hyena’s gaze, but remained silent. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He deserves to know! </span>
  </em>
  <span>Her thoughts snapped like a whiplash, but there was nothing she could do about it--the consequences for disobeying in such circumstances would be severe. She remembered everything that Hyena had told her about not letting anger ruining a good warrior, and it was clear that the Outclaw leader wanted to take no chances with Mirage, especially now. The news would have to wait. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper sighed, hugging Mirage one last time before she stepped away, sprinting into the crowds to carry out Hyena’s order. She ran towards the prison where the dragonets likely would have taken the SandWing, her mind so full of thoughts that it felt like it would explode as she frantically dodged the other Outclaws in the path. </span>
  <em>
    <span>When will Hyena tell my father? How will he react? Will he be furious like I was? His SUBORDINATE killed my mother! His wife! How could she keep that from him? And what if I told him? What would Hyena do to me? She would be furious at me for not following orders, that’s for sure. And what if Mirage died and it was my fault because I distracted him? All because I told him something I shouldn’t have? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper swallowed hard; even after all those months the pain of losing her mother still felt horribly fresh. She couldn’t bear to lose her father as well. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I won’t take any chances, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she decided. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll have to tell Dad later.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Her talons flew beneath her feet; and under the mid-afternoon sun Copper was beyond glad that she’d somewhat adapted to the sweltering heat of the desert. What was now only a few-minute run to her would have taken her ages before, back when she wasn’t yet used to the constant heat beating down on her scales.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dragons all around her winced, backing away left and right and rearing their heads as Copper ran through the crowds, not bothering to hide away her reflective scales; she was in too much of a hurry for all that hunching and careful stepping. Despite going as fast as she could, however,  it still took her quite a bit longer than usual to go the route because of the Outclaws which clogged the streets, but after a small eternity of dodging and swerving around her fellow SandWings and soldiers she reached the prison. It stood differently than the one she and Sandstone had been taken to months ago, reserved only for Outlaws who’d somehow gotten themselves into trouble, but it worked in the same way and had the same layout as the other one did. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The door opened as Copper approached it and she tensed, hunching up in her usual fashion so that she didn’t blind anybody. The knot in her stomach twisted, and seemed to grow even larger when she realized who was exiting the prison. It was her friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you believe it? Our first battle! We get to be soldiers!” Tarantula was chattering excitedly to the nods of the other dragonets, tail arched high above her back. She seemed excited, happy even, and Copper hoped for a moment that they had forgiven her after all. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was wrong. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tarantula was the first to see Copper, and she visibly tensed when she spotted her standing by the door, cutting herself off mid-sentence with a harsh glare in her direction. The others followed their friend’s gaze, adding their stares with faces fixed somewhere between confusion, anger, worry, and sadness. Copper immediately shrunk back, trying to make herself look even smaller than she already, shame causing her head to droop so that her snout nearly brushed the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I’m so sorry guys,” she whispered, staring at her talons. She couldn’t bring herself to look the others in the eye, and stared at her talons instead. They had a right to be angry with her. She had lost her head in battle and nothing could take back what she’d said and done; not even Hyena’s forgiveness could go back and change things. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For a long time, nobody answered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then, a voice spoke up. “You know...Copper...I thought we were friends.” It was Tarantula. Copper slowly looked up to meet eyes with the younger dragonet, both ashamed and surprised. She and Tarantula had spent a lot of time together over the past several months; fighting, training, playing games, and just talking to one another about anything and everything. Copper had taken in the younger dragonet when the others pushed her away for being too loud, too annoying, too pesky, and they’d grown close over the weeks. They were best friends, Tarantula even said. At least, they had been.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But...you know what, Copper?” the smaller dragonet spoke lowly, her voice nearly a snarl. “Dragons that are friends can trust each other. And I can’t trust you.” She lifted her wing, revealing a slash that drove across her flanks. “I got this from </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>, from </span>
  <em>
    <span>your </span>
  </em>
  <span>claws. You are no friend of mine.” The dragonets were silent as Tarantula lowered her wing and stormed past Copper in a whirlwind of dust, heading for the pit where Mamba waited for them. Roadrunner ran after her, saying something to the other dragonet that Copper couldn’t hear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper stared blankly at the sand, too numb to even try and speak. She knew that Tarantula was right, and so did the others. She had nearly gotten them killed because of her recklessness; her mother’s death was no excuse for how she had lashed out at all them.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I failed again, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought miserably. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I was so focused on avenging my mother and proving myself to my dad that I didn’t even stop to think about my friends. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Three dragonets remained sitting in front of Copper. Sandstone, who stared ahead as if he were trying not to cry. Dusty, who glowered at his talons with an angry expression. His twin, Drift, who only looked at Copper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“C’mon, Drift,” Dusty finally growled, rising to leave. Drift looked at him, then slowly shook his head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” he answered softly. “Just a minute.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever you want.” Dusty shot a glare at his brother and stood up, showing past Copper to join the others. Sandstone looked at Copper, shook his head, then slowly started to follow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sandstone?” Copper called shakily after him. The dragonet didn’t even stop. He just kept walking, refusing to make eye contact as he trudged after Dusty down the street back to Mamba’s training pit. Drift was the only dragonet left, and he still stared at Copper with that same blank expression. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Finally, after a long silence, he spoke.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You know, I always knew you were a good fighter,” he said quietly. Copper couldn’t meet his gaze, and looked down at her talons. She didn’t want him to see how upset she was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That doesn’t matter if I fight the wrong dragons,” she answered after a long pause. After a second she looked up, and saw that Drift was nodding.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s true,” he agreed. “But what the others don’t seem to have realized yet is that they haven’t led the same life you have. All dragons are different. And anger is powerful; it can blind you just like it can blind any other dragon here. The trick is learning not to let it do that. I know you’ll learn.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m trying,” Copper’s voice was scarcely above a whisper as she forced herself to look away from the other dragonet before he saw her cry. “I am trying.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No answer. Copper looked back again, wondering why Drift had gotten so quiet.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was gone. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper made it to the pit where the dragonets had gone long after they did, not bothering to hurry on the way back. She knew they wouldn’t want to see her anyways. The dragonets were just leaving as she reached the edge of the small arena, their heads lowered, and Mamba glanced up at her with an unreadable expression. He did not call the dragonets back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re late,” he said. It wasn’t a reprimand, nor was there any laughter in his tone. The mentor looked oddly somber, serious as she approached. Copper’s heart sank--she had never seen Mamba like that, was he angry too? </span>
  <em>
    <span>I know I made a mistake. I know and I’m sorry, but I can’t go back and fix it, even though I wish I could...</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper.” She looked up, half expecting to hear a lecture from her the older SandWing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?” she answered</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What they do not understand, they soon will,” he said. “Don’t worry lass, the older ones understand ye, even if they don’t. Be patient, and learn from your mistakes.” Copper stared at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They told you?” He nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We call it ‘grieving rage.’ It happens sometimes around here, especially to the younger ones after their first battles where someone they know is lost. It can destroy a good warrior; a good dragon if they don’t learn to cope in other ways.” Mamba sighed, and there was a sadness in his eyes that Copper had never seen there before. “I’m glad that the dragonets stopped you, Copper, even if most of them don’t understand how you feel about it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper nodded, not knowing what else to say. “Thanks, Mamba,” she said quietly. Her mentor simply nodded, and just like that the air about him changed in a snap from serious and somber to excited; ready-to-go. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now that that’s taken care of go get a bag, lass, you’ll need provisions for at least six days, preferably more--three to the IceWing border and three back. If you forget, life’s gonna suck, so be sure you have what you need.” With that, the SandWing vanished, leaving Copper to wonder over his words as she hurried back to her tent for supplies. She’d wasted valuable time on her walk back, she realized, and would pay for it later if she didn’t hurry. She could think through things later, on the long flight to the IceWing border.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage was already there when Copper reached her tent, rummaging through his things and shoving some of them into a small bag that had been tossed onto the floor by his desk. He looked up when Copper entered, smiling a little before he returned to his packing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pack up quick, we’re leaving in a few minutes,” he told Copper. “You and the dragonets will be in the back with Mamba when the troops take off; older dragons in the middle and the most skilled in the front led by Briar and myself. Don’t be late.” The general looked especially worried, so Copper decided not to ask him any questions about what was to come.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll hurry, Dad,” she tried to reassure Mirage, nosing past her father’s odds and ends into her tent. It had been connected to Mirage’s a while ago by a small flap, which Copper and her father could pass through to get into the other’s tent if they wanted. Her tent wasn’t quite as messy as Mirage’s was; a few camel skins were piled in one corner next to a small desk that her father had had made for her as a gift, and a spear that Mamba had gotten for her was leaning against the wall. Copper went to the spear first and grabbed it, holding it tightly in her talons while she tugged her satchel from where it hung by the desk and pressed several items into it; a small skin that held a few roasted lizards, several water canteens, and her copper bracelet. She hadn’t been wearing it lately, as she preferred to face trouble herself now that she had developed the skills to do so, but it could be extremely helpful in the battle to come. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper, hurry up!” Mirage’s bellowing voice startled her, and she poked her head out the flap.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m coming, I’m coming!” she called, feeling another twinge of guilt at not being able to tell him about the SandWing. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Coyote</span>
  </em>
  <span>, she suddenly remembered. Sandstone had said his name was Coyote. But there was no time for that; Copper slung the satchel over her neck and hurried outside, still holding the spear. Her father gave a satisfied nod when he saw her, then spread his wings and lifted into the sky. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He still doesn’t know. How much will it change when he does? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper growled lightly and shook the thoughts from her head, trying to keep her focus on the present. She remembered what her father had said about staying in the back, and while she wasn’t sure she liked that idea she spread her wings as well, rising into the hot sky and looking around for where the back of the formation would be. More and more dragons were gathering in the sky above the Outclaw tents, all kinds of different weapons clutched in their talons and all sizes of satchels swinging from their necks. Some even had armor plating on their chests and faces, though not many. Copper wondered if there was something she’d forgotten back in her tent, though it was too late for her to go back and she couldn’t think of anything else she’d grab anyhow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper, over here!” A loud shout erupted some way behind her, and Copper turned around to see Mamba hovering over the south side of camp. The dragonets were there as well, but they didn’t look too happy to see her, except for Drift and Roadrunner. She looked more confused; Drift somehow appeared calm, flapping next to his irritated twin. The twins especially were an odd sight--they always agreed on everything, so what made this different? In the end however, Copper decided not to try and talk to any of them, instead turning to Mamba. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why are you in the back?” she asked. “Aren’t you one of Mirage’s best warriors?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba cracked a grin, which was relieving given how serious he’d been earlier. He was one of the few who had any armor, a metal plate that was held onto his chest by a series of clips that went around behind his neck just above his wings, along with a spear that was bigger than Copper’s, but had the same design. “I am, lassie,” he said breezily, “but I’ll fly up later. For now I have to keep an eye on all of you; keep you from starting any shenanigans.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How is he so cheery?</span>
  </em>
  <span> They were going into battle, not a SkyWing feast! And yet Mamba looked about as happy as he ever had--and when Copper looked around, so did most of the other Outclaws. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They liked a good fight, she realized. This was exciting for most of them. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Guess I shouldn't be surprised…</span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought. The younger dragons like her bunch looked a bit more nervous, but they were still enthusiastic about the venture. None of them had ever fought an IceWing before, though they’d been taught parts of all the dragon tribes’ tactics as part of their training.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were four other groups of youngsters aside from Copper’s. Led by some of the Outclaws’ best warriors, they lined up next to Mamba’s group; three on one side, one on the other. Copper knew the other trainers--Gecko, Burro, Amber, and Alabaster all hovered next to five or six dragonets that were about her age. Copper had met some of them before, though they never really talked. The dragonets tended to stick to their own groups, and didn’t really like visiting the others much.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“OUTCLAWS!” The sky above the Outclaw area had gradually shifted to a light sandy-brown color from all the dragons flying up there side by side, and their wingbeats threw up huge clouds of dust beneath them, turning the entire encampment into a small sandstorm. All of the dragons turned to face their leaders, Mirage and Briar, who were flying a ways above the group in order to be seen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“FALL OUT!” Briar bellowed, and Copper watched as she and Mirage flew to the front of the group. Slowly, the mass of dragons started moving towards the North, and towards whatever new challenges they faced there. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“My wings are tired,” Tarantula whined. She had been flying next to Roadrunner with Mamba at the front of their group, and as she spoke she threw Copper an agitated look over her shoulder. Copper hardly noticed the other dragonet's envy, gliding behind the rest of the dragonets almost completely lost to her thoughts. The events of the past couple months, even just in the last day, had been a lot to take in. She kept trying to process it all at once; the fight had taken her all the way back to the day of her mother’s death, feeling that same fury and fear and hopelessness that had nearly consumed her back in her cave, seeing Fly’s dead body on the ground. And then fighting that SandWing, feeling that same rage come back to her, the hopelessness when he had her pinned down, the fear of dying and her father never knowing what happened to her. Then afterwards, the look on Tarantula’s face when she found them outside the prison, Mamba’s sad expression, and Hyena ordering her not to tell her father about the SandWing...It felt overwhelming, to say the least.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What would Polar say about all of this?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper tried to picture the younger IceWing’s face, the light blue and silver scales, feeling her heart sink as a clear image of him appeared in her mind. What had happened to him?</span>
  <em>
    <span> Would he have ever forgiven me for what I did? Would he have hated me too?</span>
  </em>
  <span> She sighed, looking down at the glinting sands below. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Not that it matters. He’s probably dead now anyways...there’s no way he escaped by himself.</span>
  </em>
  <span> It was a horrible thought, but Copper couldn’t help it. She had tried to save Polar...but what if it hadn’t been enough? What if she’d failed twice? What if everything had been for nothing after all?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something nudged her wing and Copper snapped back to the present, jerking away from whoever had touched her and turning to see who the guilty dragon was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unsurprisingly, it was Drift. He’d been the only one willing to fly anywhere near Copper after the incident, gliding tiredly next to the spot she’d chosen at the back of the group in case she accidentally flew too fast again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You alright?” The question startled Copper, and she glanced back at her friend again with a look of surprise. The other dragonet looked exhausted, his sandy wings drooping and his black eyes half-closed, yet he still seemed to be worried about her. Copper hardly even felt out of breath, though she decided not to bring that up. The other dragonets might not be too appreciative.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m fine,” she answered. “Just thinking.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“About?” Copper glanced at him, then at his brother. Dusty was flying some ways ahead next to Sandstone and Mamba, which was odd. He always flew with Drift.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why isn’t your brother with you?” she asked instead, changing the subject. She didn’t feel like having to talk about Polar, especially with the fact that he was probably gone now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Dusty? He’s mad at me.” Drift shrugged, shaking his head. “Why won’t you answer my question?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mad at you? Don’t you guys always get along?” At that statement Drift barked a hoarse laugh, shaking his head even harder. He even smiled a little.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just because we’re twins doesn’t mean we get along more than any other pair of siblings,” he stated. He looked like he was going to say more, but then looked away, and Copper breathed a small sigh of relief. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Thank you for not nagging me.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Never had a sibling,” she pointed out. “Wouldn’t really know what it’s like.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, right.” Drift paused for a moment, thinking. “Well, we usually get along. This is the one thing we’ve ever really like, </span>
  <em>
    <span>fought </span>
  </em>
  <span>over. And most siblings fight a little...you know, for attention and all that. Some fight more than that though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper thought about that one for awhile. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What would it have been like to have a brother or sister? Would we have gotten along? Would I have been less lonely? What if they could have saved Fly?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper shook herself away from that, focusing on Drift and their conversation instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you two fighting over?” she asked, glancing over at him. Drift’s expression darkened and he turned away, but before Copper could say anything he answered her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a long story.” He didn’t sound angry, surprisingly enough. “But I suppose we have all day, don’t we?” Copper paused before nodding hesitantly, unsure of what to say. Had it been a bad idea to ask after all?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dusty and I had a little sister,” Drift said quietly. Copper jerked her head around, biting her tongue to keep her jaw from dropping in surprise. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You do? I’ve never heard you or Dusty say anything about her.” Drift blew a long sigh of smoke through his nostrils.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s because she’s dead.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh. Oh no.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper’s eyes widened and she clamped her mouth shut; Drift only sighed and looked up at his brother. “Her name was Hyrax, and she was three years younger ‘n me and Drift. Our mom made us promise to protect her, and had us watchin’ her while she ‘n Dad were busy.” He shook his head. “She never should have trusted us with her.” </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Failed.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper tensed, eyes flicking between Mamba and Drift, her heart pounding for a second in her ears before it slowed again. She had never realized any of the dragonets really knew that feeling, and the thought of it both horrified and comforted her at the same time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We were supposed to be watching her,” Drift continued, scarcely paying attention to anything but his brother ahead of him, “but we got distracted one day, started playin’ by ourselves, not really noticing Hyrax. She wandered off, and we didn’t realize where she was until it was too late…” Drift’s voice got quieter and quieter as he continued. “She got bit by a dragonbite viper. And you know...there’s nothing you can do about those. She was dead before we could even reach her, and we blamed each other, started fighting.” He glanced up at Copper for a moment, then looked over at Dusty again. “Mamba stopped us, and gave us the same lecture that he gave you, told us we had to learn to cope instead of fightin’ over it, cause no fightin’ would ever bring Hyrax back.” The dragonet sighed. “I knew he was right, and after a long time I more or less learned how to move on.” He shrugged. “Dusty never really did...I guess that fight back there reminded him of it, brought up how angry he was at me. I was angry too, but not anymore...just sad, you know?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Copper said, equally quietly, looking up at Dusty. “Well, I know now...at least I think I do. Cause...killing Coyote never would have fixed anything...would it? Fly would still be dead, and all I ever wanted was for her to be alive again. And I’m still angry, you know, but also...sad. More sad than before. Almost like I thought killing him would fix things, but of course it wouldn’t have.” She sighed. “I wish I’d realized it before.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Drift nodded thoughtfully. “At least you learned from it, not every dragon does. I wouldn’t worry about Dusty though, he’ll forgive you eventually, he’s probably just mad at himself right now. Just...give him time--the others too. Everyone makes mistakes you know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are we almost there?” Sandstone suddenly piped up, looking over at Mamba who led the dragonets in front. Their mentor looked back, though he just as quickly quickly turned around again as he answered so as not to fly too fast and run into the dragon ahead of him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Another hour or so, and we’ll probably make camp for the night. We need to make good use of the daylight if we’re going to have any chance of stopping the IceWings before they get too far into our turf.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The dragonets flew in silence for a few more minutes. After a little while Tarantula started talking with Roadrunner and Sandstone again, and Copper turned to Drift once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How...how did you learn to cope?” she asked quietly. “Y’know, the other ways instead of fighting and all…” Drift glanced up at her as she let her voice fade. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, that. Yeah…” He seemed to think over it for a moment, then shook his head. “I like helping Buzzard make weapons. Kinda makes me feel better, you know? With the fire and putting the plating for armor together, kinda distracts me when I’m angry. Lets me forget about it. I take my anger out in there, but in a way that helps the Outclaws. That make sense to ya?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper thought about it for a minute, turning back to face forwards again. In a way, it sort of did make sense. “So it’s like using your anger, but to do something good?” </span>
  <em>
    <span>I never knew that was possible. Wow...</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Exactly.” Drift nodded, then yawned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, Drift.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anytime.” He nodded again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The rest of the flight was in silence, with the army of SandWings descending towards the sand at Mirage and Briar’s command once the sun began to set. The dragons gathered into groups of four, five, and six, curling up next to each other in the sand a small distance away from the next unit. Copper was quickly shoved to the edge of her group and knew it would be best to leave the others alone, positioning herself as far away from them as she could without leaving the circle entirely. Drift watched her with a sad smile, then curled up next to his brother. She could hear them whispering as she began making lines in the sand with her talon to distract herself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Curled horns. Massive wings. Sharp snout with sharper teeth. A crude image of Fly slowly appeared in the sand before Copper even realized what she was doing, and her eyes widened when she recognized what she’d made. She stared at it for a while, then began adding a second face next to the first one. Polar. A diamond-shaped snout, icicle horns, and a nervous expression. Copper looked at the pictures and sighed, placing her snout on the sand next to them. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I wish you guys were here.</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When Copper woke up, something was sitting on top of her. She opened her eyes, only to find that her vision was blocked by a sandy wing resting on her face. When she tried to move a talon in order to push it away, she discovered that it was pinned down under whoever was on top of her, and that trying to move the other talon produced the same result. Everything ached, too--her wings, her back, her neck, the three legs that weren’t asleep were all throbbing brightly. Copper shifted one of her wings, trying to decide whether or not to wriggle away before the others woke up when her thoughts were cut off by a loud bugle blast somewhere ahead of her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whoah!” Something shifted above her, and a taloned foot kicked Copper in the face. The wing was suddenly jerked away, and bright sunlight stung her eyes as whoever had been on top of her scrambled away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ack!” Copper shook her head and batted away the dragonet who’d been on top of her with her unpinned wing, blinking rapidly in the bright light as she righted herself and shook off the sand which had somehow accumulated on every available scale overnight. She moved on to shaking out her fuzzy leg, scrambling to her feet where she suddenly found herself face to face with Dusty, who was also shaking out his wings and tail. His face was red, and he quickly turned to look at the ground when Copper caught his eye. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry,” he mumbled. “Didn’t mean to--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“--It’s fine.” Copper cut him off before he could finish, shaking out her wings and pacing up to where Mamba stood at the front of the group, stamping her staticky leg a few more times as well for good measure. Her mentor was looking up at the groups ahead as their members stood and stretched, some pulling things out of their satchels and eating them while others started talking with one another and drawing lines in the sand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Copper, did you do this?” Copper shut her mouth before she could say anything to Mamba, turning towards the voice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do what?” she asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“These drawings,” Tarantula said. “They’re really, um...well done…” She looked a bit embarrassed, and Copper didn’t know what to say at all. She’d forgotten about making those the night before; it was surprising that they hadn’t been erased by the sleeping dragonets already.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah...thanks,” she answered hesitantly after a long pause, looking down at her talons. “It’s...it’s my mother...and Polar.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar?” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oops. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper tensed as Roadrunner picked her head up off of the sand and looked at her. “Who’s Polar?” </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Why aren’t they mad? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper looked around at the group that had formed around her, confused. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Why aren’t they still mad? Why are they talking to me? </span>
  </em>
  <span>“Um...It’s a really long story…” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Do I tell them about Polar? What are they going to think about me finding an IceWing in the forest? Especially after so long...I never really thought to tell them about it. Will they be mad again if I tell them? It’s not really their business, is it?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just eat for now, alright?” Drift suddenly spoke up, nosing his way into the circle. “We have a long ways to go.” Copper shot him a grateful look and let out a sigh of relief, pulling one of the lizard carcasses from her satchel and nibbling on it while the others devoured theirs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The silence once everyone was distracted felt wonderful. Copper felt Sandstone’s eyes on her as she ate, but she pretended not to notice and kept her eyes fixed on the sand in front of her talons. She didn’t know what to say to him, anyhow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper.” She turned, and a faint smile crossed her face as her father entered the grouped dragonets, the mottled pale yellows and browns of his scales flickering in the sunlight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dad.” She went to him and he opened his wings, drawing her into a hug. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How’s my daughter doing?” He asked quietly. “Ready to show off your new skills?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Copper sighed, and her father hugged her tighter before letting her go. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough if I’m ready to be an Outclaw.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have your mother’s fight in you; I know you’ll do well.” Mirage affectionately rubbed Copper’s snout with the edge of his wing, pride shining in his inky eyes. “Remember that you don’t fight alone, but as part of a whole. You’re stronger when you work together.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>With that, Mirage stepped back and spread his wings. “Three moons be with you all,” he called to the dragonets, sending up a small cloud of dust as he lifted up into the air and arced across the sky towards the front of the procession. Three sharp bugle blasts followed, and a mass of yellow and brown dragons lifted into the sky, ready to fly north again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper flew up with the others, but this time it quickly became clear that the other dragonets weren’t quite as distant towards her as they’d been the previous day. They stuck to Copper’s sides like they always had, looking not at her but at Mamba and the dragons ahead of them--and suddenly the thought struck her. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>We’re going to war now. Any fights within will do nothing to serve our tribe. This isn’t a game anymore--it’s real. They feel it too.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>It would have been a lie to say that she wasn’t afraid. But Copper did feel like she was ready to fight--she was ready to fight to protect the Outclaws, ready to fight to prove herself to her father, ready to fight to show that she was, once and for all, an Outclaw and not an outcast. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I can do this, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she told herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I can do this. If the others can do it, so can I.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>There was no chatter as there had been the day before; the other dragonets seemed to be as lost in thought as Copper was, allowing an eerie silence to settle over them with nothing to break it but the occasional </span>
  <em>
    <span>whoosh </span>
  </em>
  <span>of their beating wings. It seemed both strange and obvious that the best way to teach a dragonet combat was to throw them into it, and her nervousness about the battle to come only increased with each beat of her brightly-colored wings. Thoughts of </span>
  <em>
    <span>this isn’t a joke anymore</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>dragons could die out there</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>how are you going to protect your friends like this?</span>
  </em>
  <span> ran rampant around her mind, pulling at her even harder than the soreness of her wings until she feared she would go mad before they even faced the IceWings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>How were they going to survive this? Or was she just overthinking it?</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Two more days passed. Flying all day, sleeping in the sand as the sun went down and rising when it rose, worrying about the future and occasionally sharing nervous glances and looks that said </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t worry, we’ll be okay. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Soreness bit at everyone but no one really said anything; the others understood when the saw the tired eyes and winces of their companions when they landed to rest. Regardless of the past, they were in it together now. Hostility decreased as the fear between them grew stronger; instead of separating themselves at night the dragonets slept together in a heap on the sand, encouraging each other and occasionally practicing techniques with one another, and if they looked they could see that the other dragonet groups were doing the same.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba watched them all with pride.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still they flew north. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sand turned to sagebrush, the sun grew weaker overhead and the air became strangely cold. It quickly became clear that the SandWings were drifting out of their element as they flew north; packing in so close together as they flew that many risked being knocked out of the sky just to be a little bit warmer than they would be if they were any further apart. After months of baking in the desert and slowly growing used to the incredible heat, Copper’s enormous wings constantly felt like they were freezing up in the chilly air--</span>
  <em>
    <span>and we aren’t even to the IceWing borders yet.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>It soon became apparent, however, that they wouldn’t have to go all the way to the IceWing borders when a cloud of white dots appeared on the horizon. The SandWings kept flying; the white dots grew into white dragons, growing closer and closer until the sharp blast of the bugle commanded them all to stop. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“SPREAD OUT!” The bellowed command echoed down the ranks and the dragons all drifted to the sides; Copper straining her eyes as her group got closer and closer to the mass of furious IceWings. And even though she hadn’t expected it, she still felt both saddened and disappointed when her IceWing friend did not emerge among the snarling silvery faces--a part of her had hoped against everything that somehow Polar might be there, and she would know he was okay. But he wasn’t--of course he wasn’t, he was dead, and she had to accept that. She didn’t have time to worry about him now anyways, she had to focus on the friends that were with her right now. Slowly, the ranks fanned out in front of them, drawing their group closer and closer until the dragonets were only a few dragon lengths behind the opposing army.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper had seen one IceWing in her entire life, and these IceWings were nothing like the small, nervous, scared-of-everything Polar. They were enormous, littered with scars, confident, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>angry</span>
  </em>
  <span>--everything the scrolls had said they were and worse. However, despite their grand size, Copper noticed something else about the brightly-colored, out-of-place dragons from the far North. </span>
  <em>
    <span>They look skinny...sad almost...the scrolls said they ate seals and walruses and reindeer. And they have a special pool that always feeds them. Why do they look like they’re so hungry? </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She was about to ask Mamba about it when her thoughts were cut off by shouting somewhere in the center of the dragon masses. Angry shouts echoed from the two sides--three voices. Copper turned towards them, straining her eyes, and she recognized Mirage and Briar out in front of the Outclaw army, shouting something unintelligible at a huge, silvery gray IceWing who appeared to be the leader of the other side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The dragonets seemed to be getting restless. Roadrunner and Tarantula exchanged glances, and Drift and Dusty flew so close that their wingtips brushed--they seemed to be communicating with each other, even though neither twin spoke aloud. Sandstone’s tail was flicking back and forth anxiously and Copper carefully caught it in her own, locking her eyes with his and giving him an encouraging nod. The same thought rested heavily in all of the dragonets’ minds--</span>
  <em>
    <span>When do we fight? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper looked at their mentor, and Mamba was so still that except for the beating of his wings he looked like a lifeless statue; waiting, patiently, for the signal to attack. Was he even blinking? Copper shook her head, then tried to still herself as their trainer had done. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then she thought she heard something. A faint shout--something that sounded an awful lot like her name. Copper wondered if she was imagining it when the twins’ ears pricked up, and they both turned to look at the IceWing army.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you hear that?” Drift asked softly, eyes narrowing as he scanned over the lined IceWings. “It almost sounds like someone’s calling you, Copper. I’m not losing it, am I?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s heart started beating faster. “I...I don’t know,” she whispered back. “I thought…” she looked over the IceWings--old IceWings, young IceWings, angry ones, disgusted ones, silver ones, blue ones, purple ones, IceWings that were whiter than the snow that capped the peaks she’d once lived below. </span>
</p><p>
  
  <span>“Polar?” she whispered to herself. Then the cry came again, louder than before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper!” Her eyes snapped towards the sound, and suddenly she thought she saw it--a flash of pale blue and silver, eyes like glacier ice and an expression of nervous terror and something that looked like relief. She froze, staring at him, not willing to believe but </span>
  <em>
    <span>there he was,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Polar, very afraid but very, </span>
  <em>
    <span>very </span>
  </em>
  <span>alive. He was alive! Polar was alive!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“POLAR!” The jubilant shriek tore from Copper’s throat like fire as she exploded from her ranks; somewhere she heard Mamba shouting at her but she ignored him, tearing up into the sky as her friend shot up to meet her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“COPPER!” he screeched as pandemonium burst from the two armies. “Copper it’s really you! You’re alive and I wasn’t imagining you at all!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They reached each other and Copper saw the IceWings looking on in astonishment, anger, and shock--some seemed furious at Polar, others were giving her odd looks and squinting when her scales flashed too brightly for them to look directly at. One of the IceWings moved as if to lunge after Polar, but hesitated as the shouting from the army leaders grew even louder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We have to stop them.” Polar looked horrified, his blue eyes darting between Copper and the silver dragon that was yelling at Mirage and Briar. “That...he’s my father’s friend. They’re gonna...those dragons...we can’t let them die.” He squinted down at his talons, unable to meet Copper’s gaze for too long in the bright sunlight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, I can’t help it,” she muttered automatically, trying to hunch up like she usually did to hide her scales on the ground. It turned out to be a much harder feat when hovering several hundred feet in the air and she couldn’t pull her wings in, though it seemed to help a little. “You’re right though,” she added, looking over the SandWings to her left and the IceWings to her right. “We gotta get them to stop somehow. But how...” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As her words faded, an enormous knot formed Copper’s her stomach, red eyes flickering between her father and her friends. As an Outclaw, it was her duty to fight. But with Polar...that changed everything. She couldn’t go into this fight knowing that her friend could die, or that his friends could die. That would have been like Mamba telling her to kill Roadrunner or Sandstone--Copper knew that she could never bring herself to do something so awful, not in a million years.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked over at her friends; only Sandstone had his eyes on her, the others anxiously talking to each other in panicked tones while he watched Polar and Copper with wide eyes. Copper motioned with a wing for him to come over and he froze, though after a long hesitation he eventually turned to Roadrunner and said something to her. She looked at him, then at Polar, and Copper could tell she had connected the dots by the look of recognition and astonishment that swept across her face. Immediately, she turned and got to work collecting the rest of the dragonets, and when Copper turned around she saw Polar trying to do the same with a few younger IceWings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few minutes later, several dragonets of both the IceWing and SandWing tribes were flying around Copper and Polar, looking each other up and down with expressions that ranged from anger to curiosity to disgust. Copper’s heart was pounding ferociously inside her chest and she found it strangely hard to breathe as she looked over the odd group.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was about to face her father and tell him he couldn’t fight. She was going to go against the only family she had. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tarantula must have seen the look on Copper’s face, because she shifted so that she was hovering next to Copper and nudged her with a wing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look...I know we’ve both screwed up...but we’re not letting you face Mirage or that entire army by yourself. You’re one of us, Copper. If we’re going down, we’re going down together.” She gave Copper a small smile, and the others nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s go.” Polar’s voice was weak, but there was a sharp look of determination in his eyes that Copper had not seen before. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m not losing you again--not after what happened last time. I wonder if he’s thinking the same thing.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper and her group flew in first, placing themselves between Briar and Mirage and the silver IceWing; facing the SandWings. Polar’s group likewise flew down, back-to-back with their dragonet comrades and eye-to-eye with the IceWing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s the meaning of this, seal-bait?” The angry voice of the IceWing came first; a low snarl of rage. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t do this, Thunder.” Polar’s voice was shaking. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then get out of my way!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. I...I can’t let you hurt my friend. If...If you kill her...then you’ll have to kill me first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Us too!” Another IceWing cried. He sounded like he was Copper’s age. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Copper.” Mirage’s voice was low; angry; steady. “Back down.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t.” Copper looked her father in the eye. “Not while knowing that one of my best friends could die today just because he’s an IceWing.” Her breathing felt shaky; Sandstone suddenly pushed in front of her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What they said,” he stated, glancing back at the younger IceWings. “If you want to kill them, you’ll have to kill us first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is stupid!” Roadrunner growled, her voice rising above the others. “They don’t deserve to die!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then they should have stayed in their territory. These aren’t ‘just IceWings,’ these are thieves and liars.” Briar bared her teeth at the dragonets. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How dare you call the IceWings thieves!” Thunder roared, but Briar ignored him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t stop this fight; don’t make us hold you down,” she warned sharply. Several Outclaws twitched as if to fly forward, but she stopped them with the flick of a wing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you even want!?” An IceWing shouted at the one called Thunder. “We don’t even know why we’re here; you’re asking us to die for something we don’t even know about!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not for you dragonets to know!” Thunder’s voice roared back at them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then it’s not for us to fight, either!” was the sharp retort. “I’m not going to kill the dragon that saved my best friend’s life just because you think it’s a good idea!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You rebellious, little--” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Mirage hissed. “Get out of my way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Over our cold dead bodies,” growled Dusty and Drift in unison. “Without that IceWing, we wouldn’t have Copper! And none of us...” Drift’s gaze snapped over the dragonets, “none of us would want a life without her. You wouldn’t either!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If the mood had been less tense, those words would have meant so much after what had happened; but for now there were other things to worry about. Copper turned so that she faced Thunder, the other dragonets growling and baring their teeth at her back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you want?” she called to him, trying to keep the fury out of her voice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s not for a mistake like you to know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“SHUT UP!” Polar’s friends had to hold him back as he lunged at Thunder, fury sparking in his eyes. “You take that back!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If your father wouldn’t have me executed for killing you, rest assured I would get rid of you myself,” he snapped back at the dragonet. “You have no business meddling in this!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like it would kill you guys to talk it out instead of fighting!?” Sandstone also whipped around to face them. “Think about it--you want your soldiers to die? You’d rather they shed their blood for you than tell us what you want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Murmurs ran through the crowd of IceWings, and the talking amongst the SandWings was getting louder. Were they getting through to them? Or was something much worse about to happen?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dragons can’t change, Copper,” Mirage called after his daughter. “If they want blood, they’ll take it.” The odd group was now several dragon-lengths above the armies; Copper wondered for a moment if they could grab the leaders before they told their armies to attack. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe it’s time to change that then!” An IceWing spun around to face Mirage. “When your daughter found our friend in the woods; they didn’t fight.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because they were nothing more than foolish dragonets,” Thunder snapped. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The IceWing ignored him. “They helped each other. Copper saved his life. None of us had ever really heard about dragons getting along with each other but really, why shouldn’t we? Our war just ended, why should we start another one?” her voice, sharp like ice shards, rose above the crowd. “Why start another war? Why? None of us actually want that. Dragons </span>
  <em>
    <span>can </span>
  </em>
  <span>change,” she leveled her glare on Mirage. “But they have to want to change.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re all dragons--we should be working together,” Tarantula added. </span>
</p><p>
  
  <span>As her voice faded, silence settled over the two armies. The earlier clamor was gone; no dragon moved or spoke except for the </span>
  <em>
    <span>whoosh-slap</span>
  </em>
  <span> beating of their wings. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Either this is about to go really well, or we’re all going to die, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The stillness seemed to stretch on forever; apparently neither army had ever witnessed anything like what had just happened before, and the IceWings especially looked shocked by the behavior of their younger dragonets. </span>
  <em>
    <span>All these older dragons know is fighting. They don’t know what it is to see dragons that won’t fight, that don’t want to fight. It goes against everything they’ve ever seen. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper couldn’t see the faces of her fellow Outclaws and SandWings, and she couldn’t bring herself to turn around and look. </span>
  <em>
    <span>But will they listen to us? We’re just a few dragonets. We’re not worth anything.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, Thunder’s voice broke the silence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Even if you are the most disgusting dragonet I’ve ever met, I can’t kill you,” he growled.  “Your father would have my head if you came back with so much as a scratch.” He looked past Copper, eyeing Mirage. “No blood. Today.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No blood,” Mirage repeated. Copper swiveled around--did he sound relieved? The old general flew up above his army before she could say anything; Briar followed only a few wingbeats behind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“FALL BACK!” he bellowed, just as Thunder swirled up and told his troops the same. The dragons all backed off, reforming their ranks, leaving just the two dragonet groups in the middle. They all stared at each other, partially unbelieving of what had just happened and mostly just relieved that they weren’t dead. Copper thought she saw Mamba hovering around towards the front of the army, but she wasn’t sure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now what?” Polar’s frightened whisper dragged her back to the present, and Copper’s blood-red eyes quickly flicked up to meet the blue ones of the IceWing. “Thunder might not kill me,” he said, “but my sister just might when we get back. I’m a disgrace, really--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t even say it!” snapped the spunky IceWing who’d spoken up earlier. She glared at Polar, though there was a softness behind her gaze as she spoke. “We’ll protect you, Polar. Friends forever, right?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I’m not letting anything happen to you either,” Copper found herself saying. “There’s no way we’re going to just leave you.” Polar smiled tiredly, looking between Copper and his friend. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah...you’re right. Thanks Shiver...thanks Copper.” Shiver looked at Copper; the protective look had not vanished, but she nodded to her. Copper nodded back, grinning a little. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Who could have known? Maybe we’re not all so different after all. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“So...uh...I know you’re Copper’s friend and all so...you--you could come with us, I mean, i-if you don’t want to go back to your family just yet...” Sandstone spoke up hesitantly. Mirage appeared behind him; silent; and Thunder was also near the young IceWings again, impatiently waiting to pull them away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your father--” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll tell him,” Shiver growled, cutting off the older IceWing. “Though I’d love to see him kill you, don’t get me wrong.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A friend of my daughter is a friend of mine,” Mirage stated, ignoring Thunder and nodding to Polar. “So if you want to come, you’d be welcome in our camp.” </span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>The little IceWing thought about it for a few minutes. Copper hovered beside him, wanting to encourage him but not knowing what to say; Shiver waited patiently, holding the other IceWing dragonets back so that her friend had more space. After a long pause, Polar looked up at her and smiled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll come. I told you I’d come back in that forest, I’ll come now.” He turned to his friends, smiling at Shiver. “You’ll tell my parents?” She nodded, her dark gray eyes sharp against her pale moon-silver scales, but said nothing. “Thanks guys.” Polar looked over his friends. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Spinning around, he flew over to SandWing dragonets, where he watched the others retreat with Thunder. When he turned around again, he was wearing the brightest smile on his face that Copper had ever seen.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter 18</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Three days later, the Outclaws were back in the Scorpion Den. There was a strange quietness in the air as hundreds of sand-colored dragons descended into their tents and disappeared upon their arrival, one both of tension and something that almost felt like disappointment. Mamba had rebuked the dragonets at first for going against orders, though before they had even flown a day out their teacher admitted that he probably would have done the same after Polar and Copper explained how they knew each other. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Most of the SandWings didn’t share Mamba’s sentiment, however, and their groups buzzed with confusion and questions over the group of dragonets that had not only faced down their leaders, but stopped a potential war in the process. Who were those IceWings that had stood up to Thunder? Why had they worked together with Mamba’s dragonet group? How did they know each other, the tiny IceWing and funny hybrid that also happened to be Mirage’s daughter? What had those IceWings even wanted? And most importantly: were the IceWings coming back to finish what they started?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyena, Cactus, and Eburnean were waiting for the Outclaws when they returned, hovering over the oasis in fluttering shades of brown and near-white scales. Hyena and Cactus’ expressions were unreadable; Eburnean looked worried and nervously scratched at the long scar on his neck as the last of the Outclaw forces approached. Now at the front of the line the dragonets halted, watching Mirage and Briar fly down to speak with the Outclaw leader. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They talked for a long time. Too long, Copper thought. Were they going to get into trouble with Hyena? Would they not be allowed to become Outclaws after what had happened? Polar’s expression became more and more worried as the minutes passed, and Copper pushed away her own negative thoughts, focusing instead on her friend. She twined her tail with his and when he looked up, she grinned at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry, Dad’s just explaining stuff to Hyena. They won’t kick you out,” she promised him. </span>
  <em>
    <span>We’re probably in for a lot of trouble though...</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar made a huffing sound that was almost a laugh. “I can’t believe that he...Mirage is your father,” he said hoarsely, pointing at the general with his wing and shaking his head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not what you expected, huh?” Polar shook his head again, and she chuckled. “Yeah, me neither. But he’s pretty cool, and he tells awesome stories. Three moons, I have so much to tell you Polar!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her friend grinned, relaxing only slightly. “I have a lot to tell you as well. You...I thought you were dead, Copper. I can’t believe you’re okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me neither.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, guys!” Dusty and Drift’s shouting brought the two back to the present, and they turned to see the dragonets gliding down towards the sand near the tents where the Outclaw leaders were talking. The rest of the sky was empty; all the other SandWings had disappeared into their tents while their attention had been direction elsewhere. For a moment the sky felt strangely, awfully big with all the other dragons gone, and Copper quickly turned and followed her friends to the ground. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once they landed Copper quickly hunched herself up to avoid blinding her friends, who were now oddly quiet in the sweltering desert heat. Everybody was looking at Polar, who was fanning himself awkwardly with his wings and panting in the heat he’d clearly never been in before. The little IceWing’s glittering scales left him looking strangely out of place among the sand and billowing tent flaps, and his nervous demeanor only seemed to add to that strangeness. </span>
  <em>
    <span>It looks like someone chipped him out of a glacier, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper thought to herself, noting the way his scales glittered silver in the hot afternoon sun. </span>
  <em>
    <span>And he’s nothing like the IceWings in the scrolls. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um, s-so…” Everybody turned towards the stammering voice; It was Tarantula. She was blushing furiously, and kept looking at Polar before turning her eyes to the sand. “S-so…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s take Polar through the city. He needs a tour,” Roadrunner cut in, rolling her eyes at the other SandWing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And some water,” Copper added. “You guys grew up here, but we need a lot more water.” She disappeared into her tent, reappearing a few minutes later with several water skins in her talons, one of which she handed to her friend. He guzzled it down, then reached for another with an embarrassed expression. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry,” he muttered as Copper handed him another one. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t be,” Copper and Sandstone said at once. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper was just as bad when she first got here,” Sandstone added, and the others nodded in agreement, no doubt remembering how many times she’d had to leave training practice at first to rest in the shade or guzzle down water when she’d first arrived. Polar grinned shyly, then gave a little nod as he finished off that skin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The dragonets started walking once Polar had downed no less than four water skins, but instead of leading them into the city Tarantula lead the others towards one of the palm trees, settling down in its shade and motioning for the others to come over. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No tour?” Dusty questioned as he sat down. Tarantula shook her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s too hot out right now for Polar; we’ll do the night tour instead for him.” She looked over at the little IceWing again, averting her eyes when he smiled at her. “I uh...I mean...if he’s alright with that…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A part of Copper wanted to drag Tarantula aside and ask why she was acting so weird, and eventually decided to talk to her later that evening. Tarantula would probably object if she pulled her away now and she didn’t want to deal with another spat, not with all the questions she wanted to ask Polar first.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That would be great,” The little IceWing said, nodding appreciatively. “I did not...wow. I never knew the desert could get this...ah...warm.” The other SandWings laughed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hope Mamba lets us train with him,” Drift said. “Can you imagine? We get an IceWing </span>
  <em>
    <span>and </span>
  </em>
  <span>a SkyWing in our group?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Half-SkyWing,” Copper corrected. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And IceWing </span>
  <em>
    <span>and </span>
  </em>
  <span>a half-SkyWing in our group?” Dusty and Drift repeated simultaneously in the exact same tone, earning a half-panicked, half-amazed look from Polar in the process. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did you guys do that?” he asked, eyes wide. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Practice,” they answered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar.” Copper’s friend looked up from where he’d flopped down in the shade.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I have so many questions. What do I ask first? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper cleared her throat, stabbing at the sand with her talons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What...what happened after you ran off that night?” she asked finally.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, ran off?” Roadrunner nosed her way into the conversation, sitting between Copper and Polar. “What are you guys talking about?” She smacked Copper with the back of her tail and she bared her teeth at her. “What didn’t you tell us?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other dragonets crowded in until Copper couldn’t take it any longer, nipping at Drift’s flank and batting away Tarantula with a wing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not telling you guys if you do that,” she growled. “Quit crowding me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well…” Polar sighed, sitting up so that she could address the group. “I don’t really know Copper’s story, but we met in the forest just below the mountains. Um, back in my tribe I wasn’t exactly...good IceWing material...you know, they wanted ruthless dragons, killers, dragons that were good at stuff...and I’m not any of that. I’m scared of a lot of things, and my family tells me I’m a coward all the time--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But you’re not a coward!” Tarantula burst in. “You just stood up to the entire IceWing army, that takes guts! You’re brave, Polar. Like, really super extra brave.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar smiled faintly. “I appreciate that,” he said, “but I’m afraid my father wouldn’t share your sentiment. Uh...I had a test coming up, and I knew I wasn’t ready for it at all. And knew I was going to fail, so...I ran away. And I probably would have died too, if Copper hadn’t found me out in that forest. She said she was going to the Scorpion Den, and I thought why not? I didn’t know where to go anyways, didn’t know anyone at all or where to go. So I went with her. But that night we were caught by a patrol--I don’t know how they found us that far out, but--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, how far out were they?” Drift interrupted with a frown. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And who were they?” his twin added. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I don’t know who--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was Lithop and her gang,” Copper answered quickly. “Mamba told me.” By the annoyed looks on the faces of the other dragonets, the threesome apparently hadn’t made themselves popular with them either. Polar shook his head as he continued. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah...we were out in the forest, kinda close to the edge.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That doesn’t make sense at all.” Sandstone frowned. “None of the patrols are supposed to be going out that far.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They were probably exploring again because they got bored.” Roadrunner rolled her eyes, “they’ve gotten in trouble for that more than once. The might have heard you guys...either of you snore?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar’s cheeks turned a dark shade of blue; Copper only shook her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um...I’ve been told that I do,” the IceWing told them quietly. “Oh Copper, I’m so sorry--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t even start,” Copper twined her tail with his, startled for a second by how cold his scales were. “Don’t...don’t you dare blame yourself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar sighed. “I uh...they grabbed me and started yelling at me, and it was really weird because like they couldn’t see Copper, and she attacked them and got them off of me and told me to run.” He hung his head. “I was so scared that I flew all the way back home; I didn’t even stop until I saw the border. And my parents were so angry...my littlest sister was relieved that I was back but my dad was furious; he put me with the other dragonets training to be soldiers, said it might knock some sense into me if it didn’t kill me first...I…” Polar stopped himself and shook his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Some weird stuff’s been happening at home, guys. Something’s wrong with the Gift of Subsistence, and we hardly have enough to eat because all the prey’s disappeared...Everyone says it’s because of the gray snow--we saw these huge dark clouds one day during training and it snowed...but the snow wasn’t snow at all...it was like...I don’t even know, but it was so </span>
  <em>
    <span>weird</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Funny little gray flakes and they covered everything. They were really hot too at first, and everything’s covered in that stuff. The lake of the Gift of Subsistence is full of the gray snow; nobody can even catch seals there anymore ‘cause they’re all dead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gift of Sub...subsi...sub...?” Roadrunner stopped herself with a growl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gift of Subsistence,” Copper said with a nod. “I read about that in the scrolls.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Scroll-worm,” Roadrunner grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh y-yeah…” Polar glanced hesitantly between Copper and Roadrunner. “It’s an animus-enchanted lake that, if any dragon sticks their claws into it, can catch a seal, but it’s full of that flaky stuff now and nobody can catch anything.” He shivered despite how hot it was, wings shifting awkwardly as he continued, “it’s horrible. And the younger dragons in that army, me and my friends, none of us really knew what the older dragons were planning at all--we’re just the low ranks, none of us are worth much--but we’re pretty sure that whatever they were doing was without the approval of Queen Glacier. They keep saying they’re doing it for everyone's good, said that attacking the SandWings and taking their food was the only way…” He shook his head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was really confusing. And then we started flying south...and found you guys.” Polar sighed. “And by the way, thanks for helping me and my friends stop that fight before it started,” He glanced around the group appreciatively. “We saved a lot of dragons, I think. Though my father’s going to be so mad when he finds out...I’m pretty sure the only reason he’s keeping me alive is for Permafrost, my little sister. They have me babysitting her and training her ‘cause they say I can’t do anything else right, but…” he coughed, sighed, and clamped his mouth firmly shut.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Three moons,” Sandstone frowned. “That sounds awful, Polar. I’m so sorry...” Polar only sighed again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about it...at least I’m here now,” he said quietly, looking up at Copper. “What...what happened to you after I left? And how...how did you end up in the forest--i-if you don’t mind answering?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh yeah...so you remember this?” Copper reached into her satchel, pulling out her copper bracelet and setting it down on the sand in front of her friend. Polar looked at it, then nodded slowly. “Yeah well...we think it’s animus-enchanted.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The IceWing’s eyes widened. “It’s what?” he squeaked, looking down at the bracelet and up at Copper again. “Really? What can it do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well...that’s why Lithop and the others couldn’t see me; we think it makes whoever wears it invisible to anyone that wants to hurt them. Um...my mom gave it to me…” Copper sighed; she really didn’t want to talk about her life with Fly, but at the same time a part of her wanted her friends to know. She stabbed her talons into the sand, looked up at her friends, then down at the sand again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So...my mom raised me in a cave just south of Jade Mountain, near the rainforest. I spent a lot of time in the rainforest and knew quite a few RainWings, actually, we traded with them sometimes and a few of them liked my scales, though most of them just said they were weird.” She coughed an awkward laugh as she continued, “Eating just fruit made us kinda sick, so we hunted for stuff a lot, at least before the NightWings came. When they showed up my mother forbade me to go out into the rainforest to hunt--I was only allowed to go straight to the village to trade and back--she got some of her old...friends to bring in meat so that we had enough to eat...” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper glanced over at Sandstone and found him staring at her, he sighed and smiled encouragingly as she tried to explain her old life to the dragonets--always hiding away from the traders when they came in her room, never being able to fly above the canopy after the NightWings came for fear of being caught, small trips to the RainWing village for supplies and stares, listening to her mother’s stories of the war and her egg’s “enchantment” by an angry animus. Then the day of the SandWings’ attack, Fly’s death, her terror-filled run through the mountain to the forest where she found--</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Polar.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The dragonets all fell silent as Copper told her story, and when she’d finished she blushed and looked away; she hadn’t meant to say so much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow,” Dusty said quietly. “I mean, we knew some of that but still...that’s crazy. I can’t believe your mom told you that you were enchanted instead of just…” Copper knew what he was thinking and nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah...my father was pretty upset when he found out. He couldn’t believe she’d just decided to pretend he never existed like that, after all they’d been through together.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She really cared about you,” Tarantula said quietly. “She was willing to go to such lengths to protect you that...that’s wild.” She shook her head, looked at Polar, then down at her talons again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Heh, yeah.” Copper opened her mouth to say more, then snapped it shut again when she saw two dragons coming towards them--Hyena and Mirage. Hyena looked to be neither angry nor happy, neither surprised nor bored, and Mirage’s expression was almost as unreadable. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar, is it?” Hyena looked down at the little out-of-place, silver-and-blue dragonet as she approached, her tone perfectly calm but her live-coal eyes as intense as ever. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, y-yes?” Polar squeaked. He awkwardly tried to bow to the Outclaw leader, but instead tripped over his own talons and landed on his snout. He sneezed several times and slowly stood up again, his face a dark shade of blue. “S-sorry, um...y-your highness.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  
  <span>Hyena looked at Polar, looked at Mirage, and burst out laughing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me? Highness?” She barked, shaking her head. “I appreciate it, kid, but I’m no queen. That title belongs only to Thorn. I just run the Outclaws, which I hear you want to join. I also hear you that you and your friends stopped an entire army from attacking my dragons, a brave move that, if anything, puts me in </span>
  <em>
    <span>your </span>
  </em>
  <span>debt.” She nodded at Polar, who looked stunned. “So if you want to stay here, then stay here you will! We’ve always got room for one more brave little dragon.” She winked at Polar, who sat down on his hindquarters, looking thoroughly confused and amazed. After a second he nodded vigorously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes! Yes please!” he said, looking between Hyena and Mirage, his eyes wide. Hyena grinned and thumped the dragonet on the back with her tail. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then welcome home!”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Chapter 19</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The group talked with each other for some time after Hyena left. Copper didn’t realize that her father had stayed behind until he was suddenly just </span>
  <em>
    <span>there</span>
  </em>
  <span>, watching them with an impossible-to-read expression on his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dad?” she asked. Mirage started, then looked over at her and smiled faintly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...don’t believe I’ve had the privilege of meeting this friend of yours,” the general spoke haltingly in his usual quiet tones, as if he wasn’t really all there and his mind was somewhere else entirely. He stood and paced slowly around the circle until he reached his daughter’s side, sitting down beside her and curling his barbed tail around his talons. “Polar, is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Y-Yes sir,” Polar nodded nervously. “Ah, yes, that’s me. You’re…uh...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mirage. And you don’t need to call me sir.” The little IceWing nodded quickly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes s-ah, Mirage,” he stammered. Mirage grinned at him, before his black gaze shifted down to meet his daughter’s, suddenly serious again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper, I’d like to speak with you…privately.” Her father’s tone was neither happy nor sad; excited nor angry. The SandWing stood and began walking to his tent, motioning for Copper to follow with his wing. Copper frowned and glanced back at her friends, who only shrugged, then turned and ran after her father. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is everything okay?” she asked as the tent flap flipped closed behind her. Mirage let out a long sigh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You followed Hyena’s orders despite your own feelings,” he stated slowly, turning to face his daughter as he spoke. “I’m proud of you, Copper, even if I would have appreciated the news sooner. Well done.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean I--” Copper stopped mid-sentence and her eyes widened as she remembered; the look Hyena had given her before they left camp to face the IceWings. The look that had so clearly said </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t tell your father. </span>
  </em>
  <span>The order she had almost disobeyed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span> “Oh.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage nodded. “I’m proud of you, Copper,” he repeated. “You made a mistake and instead of wallowing in guilt you moved on and learned from your mistakes, and you followed orders even when you didn’t understand why at the time. Those are the traits we look for in good soldier--because to be a good soldier you have to trust in your teammates and your leaders.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have a good team,” Copper said with a small smile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Indeed you do.” Mirage sighed again. “But, that is not what I called you here to tell you, although I did want you to know how proud I am to call you my daughter...I brought you here to tell you that Coyote...the dragon that killed our Fly...is dead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Dead. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper froze, staring at her father. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Dead. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Dead. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Dead. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The word repeated itself over and over in her mind; burning, unforgiving, painful. A part of Copper wanted to be happy to hear that news, to know that the horrible SandWing was dead after what he’d done...but she wasn’t. She couldn’t be. Instead of happiness, a heavy numbness settled along her spine and talons, spreading out until her wings felt like lead weights and she could hardly hold them up. Everything she’d been thinking about before disappeared; vaporized like the morning fog. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What...what happened?” Copper asked finally, keeping her tone as even as she could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He tried to escape from the prison by bribing a guard; Jara caught and killed him when he tried to to fight her off--he took a tail barb to the heart, didn’t even make it ten feet before he was gone.” Miage shuffled closer to his daughter, wrapping a comforting wing around her shoulder. “I...I know it’s a lot to take in, and I hate to do it now when your friend has just returned, but I thought you would want to know.” Copper nodded slowly, leaning into her father’s embrace. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah I did...thanks for telling me, Dad.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“On a brighter note,” Mirage stood again, striding to his desk and grabbing a scroll, which he unrolled and held up for his daughter to see. Copper stared at the paper, and she could feel her heart skip a beat as she read the message inscribed on it in dark, messy ink:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>ALL OUTCLAWS</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>INITIATION OF DRIFT, DUSTY, ROADRUNNER, SANDSTONE, TARANTULA, AND COPPER TO BE HELD IN THREE DAYS.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>FOLLOWED BY THE INITIATION OF ALOE, JAVELINA, WEASEL, HABU, AND MILKWEED IN SIX.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS TO FOLLOW.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper looked up at her father. “R-Really…?” she asked shakily, staring at the unraveled scroll. “Is this real?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage smiled at her. “It is. Your group is the first to graduate; the others will also join the Outclaws over the next few weeks so that the mentors have time to take on the next batch of trainees.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper had learned early on that the Outlcaw way of training was a bit different than that of the other tribes. Dragonets between the ages of 5 and 7 were trained together in small groups for two years before they became Outclaws, followed by the next batch two years later when the first group graduated. This kept things simpler for the mentors, and allowed the dragonets to learn to work with different age ranges without having their classmates being switched around constantly to allow for new trainees.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Excitement and nervousness swirled up in Copper’s chest as her father’s words registered, clouded by a single question. A very important question. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about Polar?” she asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll ask him; he can train with the next group or join us now--Mamba told us he’d been trained with the IceWings?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then we’ll see what he wants to do, okay?” Mirage nodded and stepped towards the tent flap, nudging it open so that Copper could step through and return to her friends. “Go enjoy the rest of today. There’s no use wasting it overthinking things you have no control over.” Copper hesitated, then ran to her father and hugged him. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He’s right, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I should just appreciate what I have now instead of worrying over what I can’t change.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Copper remained there for a long time, wrapped in her father’s wings. Mirage’s scales radiated a gentle warmth like sunbeams and she wished she could stay there forever, but eventually she stepped away and rejoined her friends by the palm trees. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone and Polar were chatting with each other when she arrived, and the other four had fallen asleep in a heap beside them. Copper held in a laugh at the sight--Roadrunner, Tarantula, and the twins, all snoring contentedly in a heap of sandy scales, wings and limbs stretched outward towards the sun bordering their shade. The two dragons who were still awake looked up as Copper approached, each offering her a small smile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We waited for you,” Sandstone said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks.” Copper sat next to them, turning to Sandstone first. She took a deep breath, then sighed. “Coyote’s dead,” she told him bluntly. </span>
  <em>
    <span>There. Done. Out.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Sandstone’s eyes widened and his wings shuffled in a half-panicked way. “What happened?”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He tried to escape and Jara killed him.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who...who’s Coyote?” Polar asked quietly, looking between his two friends with a worried expression. “Please don’t tell me that’s one of your--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not even close,” Copper cut him off with a shake of her head. “He was actually...um...he was the dragon that killed my mother.” She stabbed at the sand with her talons, scattering sand with her tail as it agitatedly flipped back and forth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t look like you’re very happy about it,” The larger SandWing observed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not.” Copper sighed again and shook her head, glancing up at the oasis. “I...I thought I would be...but I’m not. Not even a little bit.” She finally managed to look at her friend. “I...I don’t know, Sandstone. It’s weird, I know. And I’m sorry about--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t. I forgive you.” Sandstone gave her a watery smile. “I…I didn’t mean to avoid you like I did there...you just really scared me and....and I was so confused and I didn’t know what to do...and,” He blew a loud sigh through his nose, “and it lead to me kind of abandoning you when you needed me. I...I’m sorry too, Copper. For all that’s happened. I know it’s been rough for all of us.” Polar’s gaze flickered rapidly between the two as Sandstone spoke but he kept his mouth shut, glacier-blue eyes wide. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m glad he’s at least not pushing us to tell him what happened, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I know we will eventually, but...not today.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, anyways,” Copper coughed awkwardly, looking over at her IceWing friend. “That’s not all my father had to say.” She allowed a smile to break out across her face. “Our initiation is in three days. We’re gonna be Outclaws for real now!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“WHAT?” Tarantula leaped to her feet, dislodging Roadrunner and earning herself a chorus of hissing from the twins. Polar jolted backwards with a startled yelp, nearly banging his head into the tree trunk he sat next to. “Finally! Three moons I’m so excited! Outclaws at last!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Three moons Tarantula, did you miss the whole idea of eavesdropping or what?” Roadrunner snapped, sitting up and stretching out her wings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You guys were...wait...you were </span>
  <em>
    <span>eavesdropping </span>
  </em>
  <span>on us?” Sandstone looked around at the others with a bewildered expression; the pile of dragonets only answered with more hissing and muttering. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just didn’t want to miss anything,” Tarantula huffed, nipping Roadrunner and earning herself a smack on the face from the smaller SandWing’s tail. “Was her idea.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tarantula!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? I didn’t wanna do it anyways.” She gave Polar an apologetic look. “Sorry, Polar, uh, sorry Sandstone. But c’mon, we’re gonna be Outclaws! Be excited guys!” She jumped around the group, nearly whipping Copper in the face with her tail, and eventually came to a standstill beside Polar. He was still recovering from the earlier scare, and now eyed her curiously with a half-grin, half-expression of terror. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even Dusty and Drift managed to look happy when they saw how excited Tarantula was. They both stood, side by side, grinning at Copper with identical grins. “Is it true?” they asked her, and the entire group cheered and whooped when she nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is. We’ll be Outclaws in three days.” Copper glanced over at her IceWing friend. “Also, Polar?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My dad said that you could be initiated with us because you’ve already trained with the IceWings, or you could do some more training with another group. It’s up to you.” Copper nudged her friend with a wing. “We’re cool with whatever you want to do, and if you decide on more training I’d suggest asking for Mamba.” She grinned. “He’s great.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, Mamba’s the best,” Tarantula quickly agreed. The others nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um…” Polar sat back and thought for a moment. “I...I’m not a very good fighter yet, and I want to be a good Outclaw, so...um, can I train with Mamba?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow, bragging for me?” Copper rolled her eyes and Polar jumped as Mamba appeared beside the group in the shade--her mentor had been right when he’d told her she’d get used to being snuck up on. “I’ve never taught an IceWing before, this should be fun.” He flashed Polar a toothy grin. “And you, dragonets. I’m proud of you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper yawned, looking out at the sun which was just beginning to set over the horizon. “We know. Anyways...I think it’s time we take Polar on his tour, eh?” Mamba grinned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I thought you’d never ask.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The group had a blast going around the Scorpion Den that night. Copper had read scrolls about the IceWings and their strict social castes; Polar had never known the rough-and tumble life of the Outclaw dragonets and was completely disoriented in the new world he’d been thrown into. Once Copper explained things to her friends, however, the others did their best to help him out. They showed him around the market stalls and explained how the Scorpion Den worked to him, each taking turns and occasionally fighting over who got to tell him what. At one point a SandWing shoved Polar and called him a “useless IceWing mistake,” only to be faced by not one, not two, but seven furious dragons including the daughter of Mirage himself, teeth bared and tails curled threateningly. Even Polar smiled when the SandWing fled into the crowded streets faster than a lightning bolt, never to be seen by the dragonets again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba got everyone dinner and they ended the night on the top of the Scorpion Den’s thick outer wall, looking out at the rolling desert illuminated by two of the three moons and chatting excitedly over roasted lizards and camel milk as an extra treat. Polar sat between Sandstone and Copper, grinning from ear to ear as he looked at the faces of his new friends--friends that saw him not as a mistake, not as a coward, but as one of them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And Copper? Copper had never felt better. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For the next three days Copper and her friends attended Polar’s first training sessions with Mamba--normally the trainees spent the last three days resting in preparation for the initiation, but they went to support their IceWing friend instead. It was Tarantula’s idea, actually--she’d noticed how nervous Polar was over his first training session with Mamba, and had immediately invited herself and the entire gang over to support him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Three days later, he was there to support them with Mamba while the dragonets stood on the dais by the oasis in front of the entire Outclaw camp. Hyena, Eburnean, Briar, and Mirage all stood behind them, tall and confident and proud. And in front of them, the dragonets, nervous but excited and trying to pretend they were neither. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba strutted across the dais in front of them, stopping before each dragonet and saying, loud enough for the crowds to hear:</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you accept your new position in the Outclaws, as an Outclaw?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you pledge your loyalty to Hyena and accept her as your leader?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then Mamba turned to Hyena, who asked: “Has this dragonet completed all of their training to your standards?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you believe that they will make a good addition to the Outclaws?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The last question was again addressed to the dragonet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dragonet, are you ready to fight for your tribe and your people?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once the last dragonet, Sandstone, had performed the initiation all gathered Outclaws burst into a cacophony of cheers, whoops, and shrieks of congratulations for the new troop, who bowed to them before leaping off the dais and into the crowd. Hyena stepped forward, raising her wings in a gesture for silence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce a new member of our camp to you,” she said, her sharp gaze sweeping over the crowd until it found a little silver-and-blue IceWing dragonet hiding under Mamba’s wing. “Polar.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar shrank back with widened eyes, but Mamba and the other dragonets rushed over and pushed him forward. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guys, wait--I can’t--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll go with you.” Tarantula grabbed Polar’s talons and hauled him up onto the dais, and Hyena winked at them before gesturing to the pair with a claw. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’d like you all to meet Polar, who is, as far as you’re all concerned, a hero. Without this dragonet and his friends many of you would have returned yesterday without your brothers and sisters and friends. He convinced the IceWings to turn back without any bloodshed, and saved us from the bloody battle that would have undoubtedly occurred otherwise.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The cheering that followed was deafening, and stopped only with the frantic flapping of Polar’s wings trying to get their attention. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t do that alone,” he said shakily to the crowd. “The...the Outclaws you just initiated...I wouldn’t have been able to stop Thunder without them.” He nodded to Copper. “I owe you guys everything.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper grinned. “THREE CHEERS FOR POLAR!” she shouted, followed by the echoes of the entire crowd. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“POLAR!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“POLAR!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“POLAR!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar leaped down from the podium and he and Copper embraced, throwing their wings around each other and laughing and congratulating one another before the other dragonets surrounded them and dragged them off to the side of the cheering crowd. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re Outclaws!” Tarantula shouted, spinning around in gleeful circles. “Can you believe it? Outclaws! Finally!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know, right?” Copper laughed as Tarantula barreled into her, nearly choking her with her sandy wings as she hugged her tight. Then she launched herself into Dusty’s wings, followed by the other twin, until everybody was coughing and laughing and shaking their heads at the youngest troop member’s enthusiasm. Laughter and embracing and dancing and cheering filled the sands around them, loud and excited and chaotic like anything the Outclaws were involved in. SandWings that Copper had never even seen before slapped her on the back with their wings and shouted congratulations to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The initiation party lasted long into the night, and it was nearly time for the sun to rise when the troop finally found themselves retreating to their tents. A temporary one had been erected for Polar near the water’s edge and Hyena led him to it, saying that he could chose a spot for his permanent residence later if he wanted to. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before the dragonets could part ways, however, Mamba appeared, motioning for them to come over and be quiet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have one more piece of advice for you,” he told them, looking more serious than he ever had before “A piece of advice that sets us Outclaws apart from normals soldiers. Remember this: a good soldier obeys without question. A great soldier knows when to listen, and when to say something. When to obey without question, and when to disobey. Because ultimately, dragons, you don’t just serve me, or Hyena, or even Queen Thorn. You serve your tribe--the Outclaws, the SandWings, your people. And you must do what’s best for them in the end. Do you understand?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The group exchanged glances, then nodded, expressions of laughter and merriment replaced by serious acknowledgement in a second. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good.” Mamba nodded as well, looking satisfied. “You’ll all do well. Good luck.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then he was gone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Slowly, the group continued down towards their tents, still laughing and chatting with one another though the tone was a bit more thoughtful than before. They had been told by Eburnean that they would receive their assignments the day after the next, and that combined with Mamba’s oddly-timed advice gave the dragons a lot to think about. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Later, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper told herself, </span>
  <em>
    <span>we can worry about it later. Now, just enjoy it. Like Dad said.</span>
  </em>
</p><p><span>Polar was so excited for his new friends that he was practically glowing as he congratulated all of them one last time before he retired to his tent, his silver scales glittering brightly in the light of the torches and the three moons overhead. He looked so unreal in the flickering torchlight among the desert shades of brown and red and pale yellow, as if he were only an illusion and might disappear if she looked twice.</span> <span>Copper watched him go, mesmerized, then shook her head and went back to her tent.</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Because dragons that were trained together usually worked together, Copper looked forward to the change that was soon to come to her troop even if the thought also made her nervous. She liked a challenge, and couldn’t wait to show her father the skills she had learned during her time in the Scorpion Den. Of course she knew that Mirage was already proud of her, but she wanted to give him a reason to be. A real reason.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  
  <span>The sun was just starting to rise when Copper finally collapsed into bed, happier than she had ever been in her life.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Chapter 20</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Two patrol units. One: Copper, Sandstone, Roadrunner. Two: Tarantula, Drift, Dusty. Both were ordered to keep watch over the crowded streets of the Scorpion Den and maintain order there; during their free time the gang often made their way to the pit where Polar and Mamba’s newest batch were being trained to watch. Dingo, Agave, Gobi, and Lion made up Mamba’s new group of trainees, and to Copper’s relief they easily accepted Polar into their fold as the Sandstone’s gang had with her several months ago.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Except</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a problem.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Something wasn’t quite right. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>A few weeks after their initiation Copper noticed that there was something different about Polar, and it wasn’t something good. The little IceWing seemed to be strangely down, even though Mamba said he was doing well in his classes and Copper and her gang hung out with him every chance they got. Despite all of their adventures together; their laughter and pranks and games and endless teasing, there was something wrong with her friend. He didn’t seem like he was happy anymore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>During training, he still fought, but the excitement behind his moves was gone. While he still came to eat dinner with Copper’s gang, instead of chatting he just sat there quietly, watching his friends and thinking. He was too easy to beat at their games; too easy to find, as if he wasn’t really paying attention and his thoughts were somewhere else entirely. He hardly ate, slept too much, and looked tired all the time. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Why? </span>
  </em>
  <span>The question hovered around in Copper’s mind for more than a week before she gathered enough courage to confront her friend about it. If he wasn’t happy out in the desert, she felt like it was her job to find out why and to try and help if she could. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The chance to ask Polar came one evening when the others were chatting with Mamba over dinner and Copper noticed him slip away; heading back towards his tent without so much as saying goodnight to the others. He’d decided not to move the tent Hyena had given him, and Copper easily caught up to him before he made it to the canvas structure.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar?” she called. Her friend jumped and spun around, forcing a smile onto his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Copper! I was just...heading to bed. Really, ah...tired, you know?” </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He's lying.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Copper blinked, then shook her head and sat down across from her friend. “Polar...you don’t have to hide stuff from me, you know that right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?” </span>
  <em>
    <span>I can hear his voice shaking...what’s wrong?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>"Well...if something's wrong, you can talk to me or any of us. Nobody here wants to see you unhappy. You...you do know that we’re all here for you, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar stared at her for a long time, then suddenly looked away with a sigh. “You figured it out, huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hah…” Copper grinned a little. “Something like that. I...I can tell you’re not...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Normal? Happy?" She nodded. Polar sighed. “I just…” he glanced back at his tent and sat down next to Copper in front of the entrance, hanging his head. “I just feel so bad...you guys have given me everything here. Food...water...friends...training...a home. A home that I never knew up in the Ice Kingdom. And I love it here, just…” He sighed again. “I miss the Ice Kingdom, Copper. I’ve gotten so homesick, and I’m so worried about my friends and my little sister...they need me, y’know? At least…at least I think they do…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper scooted closer, wrapping a wing around her friend’s shoulder. “I...know exactly what you mean,” she said quietly. Polar looked up at her, surprised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course. I came here after my entire life had been spent in the Rainforest with my mom and the occasional Outclaw trader; the change to living here was huge. I wanted to go back all the time, even with my dad here...I can imagine it must be even harder for you.” She glanced back at where her friends were having dinner, then at Polar again. “Look...I don’t want to make any promises I can’t keep, but I don’t want you to feel like you’re being forced to stay. If you want to go back home, then I'll try to figure something out. Okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar sniffed, then nodded. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll...I’ll stick around for another week, see if it gets better. If not...then…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then we’ll try to take you home.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper felt torn going back to her tent that night, her thoughts swirling with worry and concern over her friend. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What if he does decide to leave? What if he goes back and gets hurt--or worse, killed? What if we’re attacked trying to take him back? What if all of this is a horrible idea? </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>But on the other talon...</span>
  <em>
    <span>What if we force him to stay and he hates every second of it? What if it feels like a prison to him and he's never happy? He’s still barely full-grown, what do I do? </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What do I do?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What do I do?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What do I do?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Three days passed. Then four. Then five. The week flew by quickly; too quickly. Copper felt horrible not saying anything to her friends about how Polar was feeling, but something told her they noticed something too, and that if Polar wanted them to know it was up to her friend rather than her to tell. Maybe the others had also talked to him; a part of her hoped they did. Maybe if more of them were working together, then Hyena wouldn’t hate them so much if they approached her about taking Polar back home. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>All too soon, the week was over. Copper opened her tent flap to find her IceWing friend standing outside one night, looking so much more like the nervous Polar she’d found in the forest than the Polar that had seen them graduate. She hated to see her friend like this, jumpy and frightened and worried instead of relaxed, confident, and excited. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I could never make him stay, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she realized as she motioned for Polar to come inside. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I could never live with myself seeing him like this and knowing I’d made him stay. Even if I hate to see him go to where I can’t protect him...I can’t make his choices for him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, so...I guess you know why I’m here...” Polar wouldn't meet her eyes, keeping his gaze fixed on the sandy floor of the tent. Copper nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. I um...I invited the others over too, I hope you don’t mind. They’re all worried about you too--look, if the Outclaw life isn’t for you, Polar, then it’s not for you. We all want you happy, whatever that means for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They noticed too, huh?” Polar laughed weakly, his silver wings shuddering. “I guess I’m still not as good at hiding stuff as you guys are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s no shame in that!” a voice declared stoutly. Polar jumped as Tarantula shoved her snout under the tent flap and wriggled inside, followed by Roadrunner, the twins, and Sandstone. Behind them Dingo, Gobi, Agave, and Lion stood just outside the open tent, watching the group with large eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We came to let you know that we’re here for you,” Roadrunner said quietly, shooting Tarantula a glare. “We aren’t going to be upset or anything if you want to go back home.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar looked out at the group that had suddenly appeared both inside Copper's tent and out, unable to speak for a long time. When he finally did speak, his voice was faint and hesitant. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks guys. I owe you...I owe all of you everything. Should…” He paused nervously, his blue tongue flicking in and out of his mouth, “...should we talk to Mirage tomorrow then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No need to wait.” Mirage’s voice was partly muffled as the general shuffled through the flap that connected his and Copper’s tent, nodding to Polar as he stepped inside. “We can take this to Hyena tomorrow morning, but I think that she’ll be fine with a small group escorting you to the border after what you’ve done for the Outclaws. Tomorrow morning I can meet you outside her meeting tent, does that sound good to you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You…” Polar’s jaw dropped. “You guys are really okay with this? All of you? You aren’t mad at all?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar, why would I be mad?” Mirage sat down next to his daughter. “If you want to go back home, I understand. We’ll take you back if that’s what you want.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar stared at the larger SandWing, speechless. When he finally tore his gaze away to look at his friends again, there were tears in his eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you so much,” he whispered. "Thank you…"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next day after Copper and her group had finished patrolling their sector of the Scorpion Den, Adder came to them with the message that Hyena was waiting to see them in her tent. Knowing why she was being called inside didn't make her any less anxious, and Cooper's stomach felt like it was swarming with bees as they made their way to the large structure and ducked inside. Hyena glanced up and nodded to them as they entered the dusty space, turning from the conversation she’d been holding with Polar, Mamba, and Mirage. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because I cannot let Mirage go for another week and Mamba cannot leave his training, you and your group are in charge of this mission, Copper,” she told them. “As much as I would like to send more dragons with you all Outclaws are on high alert because of the current IceWing threat, and I cannot send any more away from the Den right now. Are you willing to take your friend back home?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course,” Sandstone said immediately, before anyone else could react. “Of course we’ll take him.” He glanced at his friends, who all quickly nodded in agreement. “When do we leave?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Today. Go get yourselves ready to go, you leave in an hour.” Copper and the rest of the troop exchanged glances, then nodded and turned to exit the tent one by one. She stopped as the tent flap closed behind her and sunlight hit her in the face, stumbling over her talons and barely steadying herself before she lost her balance completely. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He’s really leaving...</span>
  </em>
  <span>the thought left a heavy feeling of sadness in Copper's chest and she felt strangely disoriented, standing there in the sand and staring out at the tents for what felt like a small eternity before she realized that she could move again. Releasing a loud sigh, she gathered her talons under herself and went back to her tent to prepare. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper pulled her satchel off the rack once she was inside and slipped it over her head, reaching for her spear as well--just in case, she told herself. It could never hurt to be careful. Food, water...Copper stopped when she noticed her copper bracelet, its flashy metal surface winking at her in the light that streamed in through the open tent flap. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What if--</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, Copper?" Copper jumped and spun around, nearly hitting Polar in the face with the back of her spear. He ducked away with a wide-eyed expression. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you…” The little IceWing swallowed, then took a deep breath. “I, um…I-I came to say thank you. For...for everything.” A satchel similar in size and color to Copper’s hung from around his neck, along with multiple water skins he’d collected for the return journey to his homeland. He kept reaching up to touch it with his claws. “I hope maybe I can come back one day, yeah?”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper forced a grin onto her face. “Sounds good,” she told him. Then, before she could convince herself otherwise, she thrust the copper bracelet into her friend's talons. “Look, my mom got that for me to keep me safe...anybody that wants to hurt you won’t be able to see you. I don’t need it anymore--my dad taught me to fight, and I’m a soldier now. I just...I want to be able to know that you’re safe...please.” Polar stared at the object in his talons in stunned silence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I can’t take this from you…” he whispered finally, stumbling over the words as he spoke. He tried to give the bracelet back, but Copper shoved it back towards him again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please Polar,” she pleaded. “Please. Please take it.” The little IceWing looked down at the bracelet, then up at her, then down at the shining copper in his talons again. Realizing that he couldn’t change Copper's mind he sighed, then slipped the bracelet onto his wrist and clipped it shut. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks,” he whispered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t mention it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Just over an hour later Sandstone’s gang had gathered by the oasis. They all held spears and the twins each had pieces of armor over their chests, and identical satchels and water skins hung from every dragon’s neck. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We ready?” Roadrunner asked, glancing between everyone. “Polar? You ready to go?” Their IceWing friend nodded slowly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am,” he said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tarantula nodded, looking even more upset than the others about Polar’s departure. “Well, I guess...I guess we go then.” She sighed, then spread her wings and leaped into the hot afternoon sky, soon followed by the others. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, Polar,” Drift was the first to speak; he and Dusty flew on either side of Polar in a protective fashion and Roadrunner and Tarantula flew ahead, while Copper brought up the rear so that she didn’t fly too fast again on accident. That way, their friend was protected on all sides by their group, and those with the least amount of flying stamina were in the lead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Those other dragonets that helped us stop Thunder...who were they? Was that your family?” Polar barked a laugh that made Tarantula jump, shaking his head with a sigh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wish they were my family; my family mostly sees me as a nuisance. Those were the friends I made while in training; they’re all kind of screwups like me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah? Wanna tell us about ‘em?” Polar allowed a small grin to cross his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um...yeah, sure. The first dragon I met there in training was Blizzard. She was really nice to me and likes to tell stories; she got in trouble a lot for not paying attention and wants to be an author instead of a soldier, but her family won’t allow it. She got made fun of a lot, but I think she’s really cool. We hung out a lot, and that’s when I met Snowstorm.” Polar chuckled. “And he really is a storm...One of the best fighters, but everyone kinda looked down on him ‘cause he’s so tiny, and he has a funny talon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Funny talon?” Dusty repeated. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah...he can’t walk normally with it; it’s curled towards his stomach so he has to hold it up all the time, but you’d never know with how well he fights! And cause he’s so small nobody can ever catch him. He hated Blizzard and I at first, but even he liked her stories and eventually the three of us started hanging out. They made training bearable...I don’t know what I would’ve done without them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“After that, I met Shiver and Splinter. Splinter’s the younger one; she’s got the weirdest scales anyone’s ever seen. Completely white, nothing else, and she has red eyes.” He shook his head. “Creeped everybody out, including us, but she’s actually pretty cool.” Polar coughed, “pardon the pun. Anyways, she started hanging out with us too, and then her sister found out and joined the group as well.” He shook his head. “It was pretty weird, we were all sure that Shiver was going to kill us or something, but then she just started showing up when we were hanging out, and she’s an incredible fighter. One of the better ones, I think she’s only with us ‘cause of her sister because it’s pretty bad for reputation to be hanging out with a bunch of weirdos like us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think you’re a weirdo!” Tarantula declared. Polar chuckled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t say anything after that, and nobody asked any more questions. They bedded down that night in the shadow of a large dune, with Polar and Copper at the bottom of the sleeping pile so that they blended into the desert floor more easily. The next morning dawned bright and hot and they were on their way again, entertaining each other with stories or simply flying next to one another in a shared, tense silence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should’ve been there when the snake incident happened,” Roadrunner laughed sometime the next morning, and Copper growled at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t even start,” she hissed, but Roadrunner ignored her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Snake incident?” Polar repeated. “What’s that mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, Mamba had just given Copper a talk on the dragonbite viper--you know, the only snake that can kill a dragon, and cause we get more of ‘em than pretty much any other tribe she was so spooked. The next day we were hanging out by the oasis, and Tarantula and I got some tent canvas and painted eyes on it so that it looked like a snake, then we tied a string to it and gave her such a scare!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was hilarious!” Tarantula burst into laughter as she remembered. “She freaked out and accidentally shot fire everywhere! Even Mamba looked scared when he saw that!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I almost set Cactus’ tent on fire! Again! </span>
  <em>
    <span>How is that funny!?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Copper snapped.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Again?” Polar looked back at Copper with wide eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, we had no idea you could spit that much fire either!” Tarantula giggled, “I didn’t know SkyWings were that different from SandWings but </span>
  <em>
    <span>dang </span>
  </em>
  <span>that was cool!” Copper rolled her eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pissing off Cactus is </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>what I would describe as cool, especially after the first time--I don’t think she ever forgave me for that. Also, SkyWings are known to be able to breathe some of the hottest fire and in great amounts, if the scrolls were right. I have no idea how similar I am to a real SkyWing, but...” she shrugged. “That tent was pretty flammable, wasn’t it?” The other dragonets burst into laughter, and even Copper grinned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’d say it was worth not getting dinner and having to fix the tent,” Roadrunner agreed with a nod. “The look on Mamba’s face was priceless too!” The snickers gradually faded to silence after a few moments, then Polar turned back and nudged Copper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What did you mean by again?” he asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, the first time I set it on fire was after we got caught and Lithop took me to Mamba, who took me to Cactus. She got real mad and the bracelet made me invisible--though I didn’t know it was the bracelet--and Mamba actually helped me get out. I sort of set the roof on fire and flew out when the hole was big enough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Which, let me tell you, did not take very long,” Sandstone said. “I saw it from the outside, and it was crazy!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar shook his head. “Wow. You guys are crazy,” he said with a laugh. “I’m gonna miss you all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re going to miss you too,” the twins answered in unison. Everyone else nodded, and let the conversation fade away to silence once more. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Two days later, and they were at the border. The ground below them was no longer rolling sand with a hot sun overhead, but rocky with occasional sagebrush growing in the parched soil and patches of snow in the higher areas. The sun, too, no longer shone brightly--Copper could barely feel its warmth on her scales as they flew, and she wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or nervous or angry when Polar told them they were almost there. The other dragons in the escort looked like they were freezing though, and she was worried about them getting frostbite, so she supposed that she should feel relieved.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, aren’t you Iceberg and Seal’s runt?” Copper saw Polar flinch when he heard the dragon’s voice, and they turned to see a pair of IceWings appear from where they’d been camouflaged against the snow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are those filthy SandWings doing here with you?” growled the other IceWing. Polar swallowed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, Quartz and Owl, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s right. What do they want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They--they, um--”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We came to escort Polar back home,” Roadrunner interrupted, throwing the IceWings a nasty glare. “If you don’t mind?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The two IceWings exchanged glances, and the smaller one squinted at Copper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the hell are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A dragon, same as you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both IceWings snorted. “Wait here,” hissed the larger one--Quartz, turning and disappearing beyond the hill. The second one sat still and glared at them while they glared back--except for Polar of course, he stared down at his talons. Copper refused to show any reaction to their insults and flew calmly beside her friends, though internally she was seething. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Owl was just slightly smaller than Quartz, with scales that were a pale silvery-white and dotted by speckles of gray on his snout and shoulders. He was missing a couple claws on one talon, and a nasty scar ran up his leg almost to his shoulder. Copper wondered for a moment what might have caused it, but said nothing. Nobody said anything, waiting tensely until they saw a flash of Quartz’s bleached purple scales over the top of the rise as she flew back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Follow me,” she ordered. Polar spread his silver-blue wings and flew after the two IceWings, followed by the sandy shades of Sandstone’s gang and the metallic flash of Copper’s scales. They flew over the top of the hill, and Copper’s eyes widened when she saw a the glint of ice in the distance--it was a perfectly round dome carved from pure ice, and when she looked closely she could see the smaller shapes of IceWings standing guard in front. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is that?” she whispered to Polar. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Gift of Diplomacy,” he whispered back. “Penguin enchanted it so that the inside’s warm enough for you guys.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank the moons,” Dusty hissed through chattering teeth. A cold wind nipped at Copper’s scales and she shivered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two IceWing patrols led the group down towards the entrance, where two more IceWings stood guard. They nodded to each other and the SandWings all shuffled inside, looking up at the sparkling ice above them in awe. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is awesome!” Tarantula said, spinning around as she stared up at the ceiling. “And it’s warm here! You IceWings got some awesome stuff!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know.” Owl glared at them. “Only three of you may accompany Polar inside the Ice Kingdom,” he stated flatly. “The rest of you can either remain inside or freeze to death; I don’t care what you choose.” He turned and slithered out the entrance, leaving Polar, Quartz, and the SandWing escort inside. Polar quickly turned to them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s three bracelets...they let you guys get over the wall and into our kingdom without getting killed and they keep you warm while you’re there--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“--Which is why only three of us can go.” Roadrunner sighed. “I’m okay with staying here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Us too,” the twins agreed. Polar nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, so Sandstone, Copper, and Tarantula, you guys get to come.” He slipped out the door and said something to Quartz, who growled something in response and disappeared. A few moments later she returned, holding three silver bracelets in her talons. She tossed one to Copper, one to Sandstone, and one to Tarantula.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come,” she ordered. Copper slipped the bracelet on her wrist and hurried after Quartz. Another IceWing was there, and he flew with Owl back to where they’d been patrolling previously. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is so weird,” Sandstone said, twisting the bracelet around his wrist. “Like--look at this! I’m totally warm! That’s so awesome! My wings don’t feel like they’re going to fall off anymore!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Be quiet,” Quartz snapped, and Sandstone immediately shut his mouth. Copper growled but didn’t say anything; no point in starting fights she knew she couldn’t win. This was the IceWings’ turf, and she was at a disadvantage here. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I know the war’s over and we’re supposed to not be trying to tear each other’s throats out and all...but I guess there’s still some tension. Or that’s just how IceWings are. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She narrowed her eyes at Quartz as they approached what appeared to be a massive cliff made of ice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Gift of Defense,” Polar whispered. “It’s enchanted to shoot spears at anybody who’s not an IceWing, unless they’re wearing those bracelets.” He nodded to the silver band circling Copper’s wrist. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow,” Tarantula said. They sailed up and over the wall and Quartz stopped, hovering over the edge. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I trust you can figure out the rest of the way yourself?” she growled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes Quartz,” Polar nodded humbly. “Thank you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get out of here.” Polar quickly nodded and spun around, flying towards a hill made mostly of rock and snow. He didn’t wait for Quartz to say anything else or leave; he didn’t even look back. Copper glanced back just as the purple-tinted IceWing disappeared behind the cliff face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, is your home close?” Tarantula asked quietly. “And where is everybody?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Either training, patrolling, or hunting. The higher-ups are in the palace with Queen Glacier. We don’t really, ah...play much like you guys. Better things to do and all that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t sound like you believe that,” Sandstone observed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s because I don’t, but things around here aren’t up to me, so…” Polar sighed and made a ‘what can you do’ gesture with his talons. “Anyways, my family’s place is up here. Dad works in the palace so you probably won’t see him, but I think my mom will be at home with Permafrost. She’s not old enough for school yet.” His eyes lit up. “She’ll be so happy to meet you! She’s always wanted to know what the other tribes were like!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper kept her eyes on the landscape below her as they flew, but all she saw was endless white with the occasional rock poking up out of the snow. No plants, not even trees, just endless white. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s an ice desert,” Sandstone remarked. Polar glanced back at them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There are some forests to the southwest, closer to your borders and I think they go into your territory?” Copper nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. The most northwest part of the Kingdom of Sand, there’s some forests there that nobody lives in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know the maps?” Sandstone sounded amazed. “Wow. How do you remember all of that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not sure,” Copper shook her head. “I just read a lot while I was with my mom...she brought me scrolls all the time and I loved reading them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s awesome,” Polar said. “I wish I could read more.” He sighed. “Here we are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper glanced down as Polar tucked in his wings and descended down towards a large cave opening up into the side of the mountain. </span>
  <em>
    <span>It looks so much like my old home...except there’s snow, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought. She followed her friend down towards the ice-and-stone home with the two SandWings flanking her sides, peering into the blackness and trying to make out any dragons that might be inside. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mom?” Polar called, landing at the mouth of the cave and peering inside. “Mom it’s me...Polar…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, look who’s decided to come back,” A silver and gray-speckled IceWing slithered into the bright white light of the afternoon, immediately turning her glare at Copper and her friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What,” she hissed, pointing at Copper with a claw, “is </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, this is my friend,” Polar said. Copper saw his spikes flare but he didn’t lash out, instead keeping his head bowed low. “They brought me back here. I’m...I’m so sorry for disappearing...I’m sorry for everything...I know I don’t deserve to live here but please, please take me back?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You certainly don’t.” Polar’s mother glared down her snout at the dragons. “You're a disgrace to our kind."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yes, mother." Seal snorted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Whatever, get inside. Your sister needs to be watched over; I have work to do. You know your duties.” With that, she threw one last glare at Copper and her friends before she turned and went back inside. Polar didn’t move, his tail curled neatly over his talons, eyes focused on the floor in front of him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar?” Tarantula whispered. “Polar…” She stepped forward and put a wing around his shoulder and he flinched, finally breaking his gaze to look up at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Ah...sorry,” he sighed. “I...I better go.” He offered Tarantula a tiny smile, locked eyes with Copper, and disappeared into the cave. He did not come back out, nor did his mother. The SandWings exchanged glances. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now what?” Sandstone asked worriedly; quietly. “Do...do we go in?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Copper said quickly, shaking her head. “We should probably go. If Polar wanted to say anything more, he would have come back.” She sighed and turned away from the entrance to the cave. “We...we should get back to the others.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two SandWings stared at Copper, then hesitantly followed when she spread her wings and leaped back into the cold sky. Even though the animus bracelet was still safely clipped onto her wrist, she felt cold inside. </span>
  <em>
    <span>How could Polar go back to that? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper wondered, shivering. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Why would he want to go back? Did we fail him? Should we not have let him go? I’ve never seen him look so defeated...how could I do that to him?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It was his choice, </span>
  </em>
  <span>another part of her answered. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I could never live with myself if we’d tried to force him to stay. At least this way, we got to make sure he got back safely. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Then why? </span>
  </em>
  <span>The question remained.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Why?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Why does everything about this feel so </span>
  </em>
  <span>wrong</span>
  <em>
    <span>?</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Chapter 21</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The Scorpion Den didn’t feel the same without Polar there, and despite trying to shove those memories of him out of her mind Copper found that she just couldn’t. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Why did Polar go back?</span>
  </em>
  <span> She asked herself over and over and over again. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Why did he leave? Wasn’t he happy? And why did he act so strangely around his mother? What is going on with the IceWings?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>IceWings had been described in Copper's scrolls as being very intelligent and arrogant, but also formal; well-mannered. The IceWings she had seen were certainly intelligent, and the arrogance in their sharp voices was unmistakable...but there was something else there, something a lot more frightening than any of those things. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They sent a half-starved army against Pyrrhia’s most powerful kingdom...The only other thing that would make a dragon do that aside from stupidity is desperation...and the things Polar talked about...he said they weren’t a part of Queen Glacier’s army...why? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper huffed as she turned again, pacing up and down the small space of her tent. The looks in the eyes of the IceWings that she’d faced in the border skirmish, at the dome, in Polar’s own home…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Fear. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>But…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What would scare an IceWing?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s not right,” Copper muttered, shaking her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s not right?” her head jerked up as her father pushed his nose through the tent flap, followed by the dull arrangement of mottled yellow and brown scales as Mirage shouldered the rest of himself through. He frowned when he saw her, then sat down in the sand. “You’ve been pretty tense these past few weeks,” he said . “Everything okay?” Copper sighed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um…” Copper hesitated. “Why...what exactly is going on with the IceWings, Dad?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The IceWings?” Mirage repeated. “I haven’t looked into it much; I’ve been helping Hyena run the Scorpion Den and haven’t had much time to study the matter. Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Something isn’t right about that attack they sent...Polar told us that some weird stuff was going on in the Ice Kingdom and he and a bunch of others were sent to training but not for the queen...Queen Glacier didn’t organize that attack at all, I’m not sure if she even knew about it. It’s just...not making sense.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Why attack without the queen’s approval? Unless...what if they're not connected to the Queen at all?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmmm…” Mirage flipped his tail back and forth over the sand as he thought. “We’ve gotten no messages from Queen Thorn; I believe she’s still working out things with the SkyWings...We have no authority over the IceWings, especially because we’re only Outclaws, but I can request that Hyena send her a message. We don’t want to be caught off guard if they strike again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Copper blew out a smoky sigh, shaking her head. Somehow that didn't help her feel better as much as she'd hoped it would.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This isn’t also about a certain young IceWing that went back to his home a few weeks ago, is it?” Mirage raised an eyebrow at Copper. She wrinkled her snout at him, but nodded. It sometimes annoyed her how well her father read her, but not this time. She’d been wanting to bring this up for a while now. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is,” she admitted, looking down at her talons. “It’s just...I’m just so worried about him, you know? His mother was awfully mean to him while we were there, and with everything he was telling us about training and all the weird stuff that happened I'm so scared...I don’t want to hear that he’s dead or something because I wasn’t there to help him when I should have been!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper.” Mirage’s calm voice drew her attention away from her fears and she looked up at him, shutting her mouth. “You can’t ever expect to control the actions of someone else; only your own. If Polar wanted to go back, then that’s up to him. You have to learn to accept that you can’t always be there for everyone, and that things can happen to others whether you’re there or not.” Copper’s shoulders slumped as he spoke, but when he'd finished she nodded slowly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know, Dad,” she said quietly. “I just...I wish that I could do more.” Mirage smiled sadly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know, Copper. That’s part of what makes you such a good soldier--you always give it your best, even when you think you’ll fail. You don’t give up.” He wrapped a wing around her. “Just like Fly. Your mother would be proud of you, Copper.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hope so.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know so.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>---</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When the sun rose the next day it was windier than usual; the palm trees by the oasis whipped back and forth in a flurry of dull green and the air was thick with dust as Copper stepped from her tent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Might even get a sandstorm,” observed a voice. Copper didn’t even twitch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do we do if there’s a sandstorm, Mamba?” She glanced back as the larger SandWing slithered into view from behind the edge of her tent, looking up at the palm trees overhead and then out at the rest of the Scorpion Den, which was nestled into the dunes some distance away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You get in your tent, and then you stay there until it’s over,” he answered. “And if you have anything cloth, put it over your face if you want to breathe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aren’t you supposed to be in training?” Copper asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Training’s cancelled. But...I do believe your patrol isn’t.” He gestured to three muddy shapes which seemed to appear from nowhere; as they came closer Copper recognized Sandstone and Roadrunner, each with one wing raised above their head to keep the dust out of their eyes as much as possible. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Awesome.” Copper stepped away from her tent, hissing as a cloud of sand whipped up and stung her eyes. She tried to pick up her wing and hold it above her head like Roadrunner and Sandstone were doing, but the wind kept grabbing at her large wings and tugging her this way or that. She tried tilting her wing down and partly folding it, and that seemed to help as she stumbled over to the palm trees where the others were.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You guys ever been in a sandstorm before?” Copper asked Roadrunner once she got to her friend's side, raising her voice to be heard over the blowing wind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, plenty of times. They’re not real common but not super rare either.” Roadrunner shrugged while Sandstone nodded his agreement. “We’ll probably have to ditch and go back to our tents--trust me, you don’t want to be caught out in a sandstorm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The three started their patrol as they always did, though before they’d gotten very far Copper noticed something in the distance. At first it looked like a dark smudge on the horizon, but it quickly grew in size and width until it was a wall of sand that seemed to stretch from forever to forever and so far into the sky that the two became a single swirl of dust and wind. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Three moons,” Copper breathed, frozen in place. How had it come so </span>
  <em>
    <span>fast?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“We need to get back to camp,” Sandstone said nervously, looking between his two patrol-mates. “Now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper didn’t argue. The trio turned and started running towards camp as fast as they could, their talons pounding on the cobblestone, the wall of sand looming in the sky behind them. The Scorpion Den turned dark as the storm crossed the sun, leaving all the dragons below in a world of dark dusty-brown. Not even Copper could fly in the harsh sand-flinging winds, forced to stay on the ground with the others as they ran. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll never make it,” Roadrunner gasped. “We have to find shelter fast!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They dashed down street after street, until Copper found a canopy that had been mostly ripped away from a now-empty stall. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here!” she shouted over the howling wind. The others bolted over to her and helped her tear the rest of the canopy down, crawling under it just as the first gusts of sand-filled wind slammed into them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The wind howled about the three dragons for hours, pelting sand grains at their flimsy shelter and roaring in their ears. Nobody could talk above the raging wind and they didn’t try to, too focused trying to hold down the canvas with their talons while Copper tried to keep her wings out of the way and her patrol-mates tried not to stab themselves or each other with their tails. It was so dark under the tarp that Copper couldn’t even see her own talons, and she had to keep her head tilted back awkwardly to avoid accidentally stabbing a hole in their shelter with her horns. The tiny space was also horribly cramped, but now didn’t seem like the time to complain about that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper was beginning to wonder if she’d be trapped under the tarp forever, when the storm gave one last roar and then sputtered out. The wind died away, collapsing into a few rasping gusts that still scattered sand but with none of the violence of before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you think we’re safe?” Sandstone’s muffled voice made Copper jump in the sudden silence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think so? The canvas is so heavy…” Roadrunner grunted, wiggling off of her edge of the canopy and nosing her way under it. A cascade of sand rained over the edges, and Copper winced as a bright beam of light hit her eyes. She crawled out after Roadrunner, stepping out into the hot white sunlight overhead. She shook her head, squinting back at what had been their shelter for the past several hours, and her eyes widened as she saw the huge pile of sand that had collected on top of their canopy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow,” she murmured, blinking and looking over the sand-covered city. Dragons of all shapes and sizes and shades of sand were crawling out from under tents, canopies, alleyways, and dragon piles, wandering about slowly in their new surroundings and shaking the dust off their wings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oof!” Sandstone shoved the rest of the canopy off himself with a grunt and came over to where Copper and Roadrunner stood, shaking the sand off his wings and sending up a small cloud of dust. “That was quite a storm,” he said, then sneezed. “I should go check in with my mom, she always wants to know if I’m okay after these.” Roadrunner nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me too,” she agreed. “Then we can meet with the others by the oasis; make sure we’re all good. Copper?” Copper glanced up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I’ll see if I can find my dad,” she agreed with a nod. “Meet you guys by the palms?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. See ya there.” Roadrunner spread her wings, followed by Sandstone and Copper as they flew back to camp in a shower of dust.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Dad?” Copper nosed her way into her father’s tent. Mirage was hunched in one corner with a small group of Outclaws, who all looked up at her as she approached. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper! Thank the moons you’re alright!” Mirage pushed his way through the other Outclaws and hurried over to his daughter, and they embraced. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay Dad,” Copper said quickly, noticing how worried her father looked. “I had Roadrunner and Sandstone with me; we’re okay, I promise.” Mirage nodded slowly, then let out a long sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright that’s good...that’s good,” he said. “I’m glad you’re okay.” He sighed again, looking back at the other SandWings still clustered behind him, then turned and nudged his daughter towards the tent flap. “Go check in on your unit now,” he ordered sternly, as if he hadn’t been so concerned just moments ago. “If you need me, I’ll be back in the meeting tent. We Outlcaws have a city to check up on.” He smiled tiredly, shaking his head. “It’s going to be a long day.” Copper listened attentively, then hugged her dad again when he’d finished.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you,” she told him, then turned and slipped out the tent flap. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you too,” Mirage called after. Copper smiled to herself and took off, weaving easily between the tents on the same path she’d taken hundreds of times before. Then she skidded to a stop, hacking and coughing as a mouthful of dust scattered down her throat and lungs. When she could finally breathe again she looked around, and Copper realized that the air was still tinged brown with still-settling sand. It hadn’t been this hard up flying or in her father’s tent...</span>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe a lot of its settled, so I could fly at a higher altitude and actually breathe, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought. She looked up, then back at her tent. She couldn’t just spend the rest of the day flying…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper took a slow pace back to her tent, keeping her head down and trying to shield herself with a wing. It didn’t work very well, but luckily her tent was close by and she got there quickly, where she pulled a roll of cloth from the floor and held it to her snout. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Better, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought. She wrapped the tan strip around her snout and carefully tied it, then started back out into the camp again--this time, now able to breathe normally, even if talking was now impossible. Copper also knew that she probably looked a bit ridiculous, but it was better than constantly coughing her lungs out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> The hot sun illuminated the dust hovering around her as she started back down the path again, turning the camp into a bright curtain of glittering, dusty brown. Few Outclaws were out yet, and the tents nearly buried in sand. The camp looked almost...alien. Deserted. Foreign. Copper almost couldn’t believe her eyes, ears twitching in the eerie silence left behind after the storm. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Is this normal? </span>
  </em>
  <span>She’d have to ask the others if it was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> Eventually, she made it to the palms, breathing a sigh of relief when she counted five SandWings silhouettes already gathered there. As she came closer she could make out the features of each dragon as well through the still-falling dust and sand--Dusty and Drift, Sandstone, Tarantula, and Roadrunner, all swapping stories with each other in excited tones. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper’s back!” Sandstone yelped when he saw her, and the others all turned as she hurried over to their sides.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whoah, nice gear,” Tarantula said, and laughed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I couldn’t breathe,” Copper growled, pulling the strip off her mouth so she could talk but keeping part of it over her nose. “Kept coughing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Interesting.” Roadrunner tilted her head with a curious look. “This is giving you trouble?” She looked at the others, who also seemed to be fine. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s probably ‘cause we’re SandWings,” Drift stated. “Y’know, we’re special in the desert ‘n all that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Probably,” Copper agreed with a nod. “I didn’t know that this was one of your adaptations, though that does make sense.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A-dap-who now?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A-dap-ta-tion,” Copper corrected. “Your...‘special’ abilities, as you put it, they probably allow you to safely breathe even when there’s a lot of dust in the air.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cool.” Drift flared his wings and grinned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, we hear you guys found shelter,” Dusty cut in, knocking his brother aside to get a word in. “Which I say is totally unfair; we had to curl up in a tiny alleyway with our heads under our wings and I couldn’t breathe at all!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Looks like you’re breathing to me,” Drift remarked, earning himself a nip on the tail. He laughed and shoved his twin, and the two were still bickering when a chorus of shouts erupted from Mirage’s tent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That doesn’t sound good,” Sandstone said nervously, but his voice was faint; Copper was already running. She sprinted up the sandy pathways back towards where she’d left her father as fast as her talons could carry her, her heart hammering furiously in her chest. The tents flew by in a blur while panicked questioned swarmed her thoughts. What was going on? Was her father okay? Had he been attacked? Were the IceWings here to kill them all? Was she going to be too late again?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her father’s tent appeared ahead of her and Copper didn’t hesitate, bursting inside and screeching to a halt at the sight that waited for her there.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Mother!?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Chapter 22</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Why wouldn’t the ground stop shaking? Or was that just her legs? Copper froze on her wobbly talons, and never before had her legs felt so weak, so incapable of holding her up. A small, ruby red SkyWing swung her head around from where she’d been glaring at the general, fiery eyes widening in shock when their gazes met. Mirage stood some ways away, also stunned into silence and stillness, and the dragon’s shouts she’d heard before were gone--in fact, the dragons that had been shouting were gone as well. When had they left?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper had no time to register the question, before her mother’s shouts rang in her ears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper? Copper, it’s you!” Fly ignored Mirage and rushed over to her, nearly knocking her down as she wrapped her massive wings around her and tears streamed down her face. “You’re alive!” Fly cried, in that voice Copper had known so well and nearly forgotten and yet it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>here </span>
  </em>
  <span>again. “You’re alive! My baby’s alive!” It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>real. </span>
  </em>
  <span>This wasn’t a dream. It was actually happening...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Too stunned to even move, Copper stood limply in her mother’s embrace, so shocked she couldn’t even begin to know how to respond.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“</span>
    <span>M-Mom</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” she finally croaked. She looked into her mother’s eyes, eyes that were </span>
  <em>
    <span>open </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>alive </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>real </span>
  </em>
  <span>and everything she’d remembered. Fly nodded and squeezed her tighter, resting her chin on Copper’s head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m here,” she whispered hoarsely. “I came back for you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A tear slid down Copper’s face. Then another. Then another. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were dead!” she sobbed, burying her face into her mother’s chest. “You were dead and now you’re here! What happened? How’d you come back?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh honey…” Fly’s voice cracked as she spoke. “I’m so sorry...I probably would have died if it wasn’t for your RainWing friend. Dragonfly came back with one of her tapestries and found me...she took me back to her village. I woke up in their healing hut and she was there; she told me that they hadn’t expected me to make it but…” She spread one wing, and when Copper looked at it she could see the ugly scar that the SandWing’s tail had left behind. “Here I am. They found brightsting cactus for me, somehow...I wanted to go immediately out and look for you but they wouldn’t let me for the longest time because of my head injury, and I couldn’t fly for quite some time afterwards. They told me I was lucky that I can fly at all…” she shook her head slowly, lowering her wing. “I’m not the flyer I used to be.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As soon as I could fly I tore apart the Rainforest looking for you, Copper. When I didn’t find you there I looked in the forest on the other side of the mountain, the edges of the desert...and then I came here.” She let out a long sigh, brushing Copper’s cheek with a gentle talon. “And here you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s an Outclaw now, you know.” Copper jumped, realizing that she’d forgotten her father was in the tent as well. Fly’s expression darkened, lips curling back over sharp fangs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You didn’t--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No! I wouldn’t kidnap her, for the moon’s sake!” Mirage burst out before she could finish, lashing his tail angrily. “I didn’t know where either of you were or if you two were even alive! Our daughter came here out of her own choice, and stayed by her own choice. I never forced her to do anything--if she’d wanted to leave and go back rest assured I would have sent her back.” Mirage glared at Fly, but Copper noted the sadness there as well. “It’s me, Fly,” he growled, his tongue flicking in and out of his mouth; in and out; agitated, angry. “It’s me.” He repeated. “The SandWing you married? I haven’t changed!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, you think he kidnapped me!?” Copper almost shouted as she realized, pulling away from Fly and skittering closer to her father’s side. She looked between her parents; Fly, who reeled uncertainly at her response, and Mirage who somehow looked even sadder than before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dad saved me!” Copper growled at her mother, lashing her tail. She felt disoriented and confused, but everything about what Fly was saying felt </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong, wrong, wrong. </span>
  </em>
  <span>This wasn’t how this was supposed to go! This wasn’t what this was supposed to look like!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This isn’t Dad’s fault, and you can’t blame him!” Copper said again, shaking her head as she made up her mind. “I won’t let you blame him! You were </span>
  <em>
    <span>dead</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Mom, what was I supposed to do? I didn’t know where else to go and I came here…” she shook her head, baring her own teeth. “He gave me a </span>
  <em>
    <span>home. </span>
  </em>
  <span>He gave me a </span>
  <em>
    <span>family. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Why did you lie to me about Dad? He’s given me so much now that I’m here! He’s protected me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How is keeping you here in the Scorpion Den protecting you!?” Fly shot back, but her words didn’t have nearly as much venom as before. She looked for all the world like all the fire had been sucked out of her, if not for the snarl still twisting across her snout.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I taught her how to fight so that she could protect herself!” Mirage snapped. His tail lashed faster and faster; </span>
  <em>
    <span>angry.</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Because I know that I can’t always protect her from everything myself. Because I know she’ll have to face the world without me one day. Because I care enough to make sure she’s ready when that happens.” Fly glared at her husband first as he spoke, then her gaze shifted over to her daughter. Copper glared defiantly back, holding her position just in front of her father, ready to defend him if she tried to go after him again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fly blinked several times, frozen in place, clearly unsure as to how to react. Copper had never even so much as growled at her before under the mountain, but it was clear now that things had changed; that they’d never be the same way again. That Copper didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>want </span>
  </em>
  <span>them to be the same again. The fire in Fly’s eyes flickered out as she seemed to realize this, and then she looked at Mirage and her gaze softened. Suddenly she dropped her head and folded her wings back at her sides, and the threatening display was gone. She looked so small now; so ashamed, as if she might disappear if Copper so much as blinked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I…I made up that story about your father because I was ashamed…” she whispered hoarsely, keeping her eyes locked on the grounds. She made eye contact with neither Copper nor Mirage as she spoke, her voice wavering uncertainly. “I...I was also afraid. I never wanted to see you hurt because of me...I was afraid that you would go after your father and get hurt. I didn’t want anything to ever hurt you...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Neither of us did,” Mirage said quietly. Anger still edged his voice, but it was softer than before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper glanced over at the edge of the tent flap and saw a small eye looking up at her from under the cloth, black as night. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Sandstone. </span>
  </em>
  <span>A flash of a memory appeared--back in the cave, when she’d used the same tactic to spy on him and Beetle before the attack. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Wait. Beetle. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper locked eyes with Sandstone and gave a tiny, imperceptible nod towards the other tents. The eye snapped shut and Sandstone disappeared, just as Mirage spoke up again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I still don’t understand why you left,” he said quietly, flipping his tail over his talons now that most of his anger was gone. “I never really did.” Fly’s head snapped up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who was the dragon that came into our tent? Who was the dragon that tried to take our egg from us?” she demanded sharply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop growling at Dad,” Copper snapped, narrowing her eyes again. “He doesn’t deserve that.” Fly gave her a dangerous look, but didn’t reply. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I never caught him,” Mirage sighed. “But his name was Cereus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Was he the same one talking to you the day before it happened?” Fly’s tone was still sharp, though less so than before. Copper looked at her, then at her father, suddenly uncertain. Confusion rolled around her thoughts. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What are they talking about? What is going on?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“He was. But it’s not what you thought it was, Fly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I heard you!” Fly burst out, her wings flaring before she forced them to her sides again. “You two were talking about hybrids, and he said he hated them! Hated what our daughter was to be! And you agreed!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think that’s true.” All three dragons whipped around as Beetle ducked under the tent flap and stepped into the room, Sandstone huddled under her wing just like he had so long ago back when Copper saw him under the mountain. “You and I both know that that’s not what Mirage would ever do. Stop holding onto your stupid grudge and listen for once.”</span>
</p><p>
  
  <span>Fly glared at Beetle for a long time, then she ducked her head again and let out a long sigh. “You’re...right,” she said finally. “I’m sorry...I just--I only wanted what was best for Copper. I didn’t really think about it; I left as fast as I could; I convinced myself that I hated you and never wanted to go back…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I never agreed to what Cereus said,” Mirage said evenly. “But I didn’t want anything to happen so I tried to change the subject--you know how those dragons are, Fly. He got suspicious...those dragons are truly horrible, and I was never, will </span>
  <em>
    <span>never </span>
  </em>
  <span>be one of them. I’m pretty sure that he spied on us, and discovered where Copper was hidden so he could kill her before she hatched.” The general shook his head. Copper didn’t move, too utterly bewildered to even try. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why didn’t you tell me?” Fly said after a long time, looking over at Beetle. The giant, battle-scarred Outclaw returned the look easily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look, I wanted this reunion to be a lot happier than it is, and while I’m overjoyed to find out that you’re alive, Fly, that doesn’t change what happened and the decisions you made. I tried to tell you the truth, but you wouldn’t listen and threatened to disappear to where none of us could find you--what was I supposed to do with that? Let you starve once the NightWings showed up? I protected you in the best way I knew how.” Sandstone and Copper exchanged looks--equally confused by the conversation currently going on. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Do we do something? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper thought, looking over at Sandstone. He frowned, then gave his head a tiny shake when he saw the question in her face. Copper sighed, but didn’t argue the point, and waited.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a long time, Fly said nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I guess I always was a stubborn tail-in-the mud, wasn’t I?” she whispered shakily after a long silence; addressing no one in particular. Mirage and Beetle looked at each other, then each nodded slowly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fly.” Mirage spoke first, and Fly turned to her husband. “Look...I...I don’t know about you, but I...well, I still love you as much as I did the day that you left. Copper lives here now...perhaps you’d like to try again...come back...be a family.” The general looked as close to tears as Copper had ever seen; his eyes swirling with emotion. “Please come back, Fly? Come back to stay again?” Fly’s wings tensed and her eyes widened slightly, the two locking their gazes for a long moment. Then she looked down at Copper, then up at Mirage again. Her fiery eyes sparkled with unshed tears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...I made a lot of foolish and impulsive decisions...and despite all that telling myself I hated you and never wanted to see you again…” She let out a long sigh, shaking her head. “I...well, that was all nothing but I lie I told myself. I still love you as well...I’ll come back, Mirage. I’ll come back for Copper...and for you.” She stayed there for a long time, swaying on her talons, then suddenly she turned and rushed into Mirage’s talons, wrapping her massive ruby wings around him and hugging him tight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I missed you,” she whispered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As did I,” Mirage answered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper.” Copper turned, and Beetle quietly motioned for her to follow her and Sandstone out. “Come over to my tent for a while; these two are going to need some time alone.” Copper glanced at Sandstone, nodded, and followed them back out into the camp. The rest of their patrol was waiting for them outside, staring at the three exiting the tent with wide eyes. Most of the dust had settled by now, leaving their features clear and sharp in the fading day’s light.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Was that--?” Drift started to ask, then stopped himself. Copper nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah...yeah it was. My mom...Fly...she’s not dead after all.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>---</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That night, Mirage, Fly, and Copper ate together by the oasis’ edge near their tents. Copper and Sandstone had spent the rest of their day with Beetle, listening to her stories of the war of the SandWing Succession while the Scorpion Den picked itself up from the sandstorm and got back into its usual rowdy routine. Copper hadn’t known that Beetle was such a good storyteller before, and wondered if all SandWings were good at it or if she was just lucky to have both her and her dad around to tell them. Beetle seemed to know all the good stories to tell too; stories of incredible battles andCopper’s favorite--the Dragonets of Destiny.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, Copper told her mother the story of how she’d escaped from her home under the mountain, about her life in the Scorpion Den and about the war they had stopped before it even started, and the friends she’d made during her training with Mamba. Fly listened quietly the entire time, never once interrupting her daughter. When Copper finished she was quiet for a long time; thinking. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...cannot believe you met an IceWing before I got to,” she said finally with a shake of her head. “You’d think...serving Scarlet I would have...only saw ‘em from a distance though…” </span>
  <em>
    <span>It’s hard for her to take in all that’s happened to me since I left, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper realized suddenly. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Three moons, I hope I haven’t upset her too much.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh Mom…” she threw her talons around her Fly’s neck and hugged her close, feeling her mother’s ruby wings as they wrapped around her in response. “Mom, I love you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you too, Copper.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whoah, hey, do I get to join the party?” Mirage’s voice was muffled, before Copper felt a comforting wave of heat as her father’s wings wrapped around them both. Fly giggled, and for a moment Copper felt like a little dragonet again, safe and sound in her mother’s wings. Then Fly slowly pulled away and she was back in the Scorpion Den, and she could see Tarantule peering at her from under a tent flap. Copper winked at her friend, and she saw the little SandWing grin before her snout disappeared. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, Polar, was that his name?” Copper glanced up at her mother as she spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How long’s it been since he left?” </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“About three weeks,” Mirage answered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmmm, seems like it’s been quite a while. Don’t you want to visit him?” Fly asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Visit him?” Copper repeated. She turned to her father, tilting her head. “Can we do that?” Mirage looked down at his daughter and frowned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why do you want to visit him, Fly?” he asked calmly, settling down on the sand and curling his barbed tail around his front talons. Copper nudged herself under his wing and sat there, enjoying the warmth his scales gave off as she watched the sun slip below the horizon. Fly tilted her head at both of them, then joined them in looking out at the camp beyond their open tent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“From what you’ve told me so far, I don’t think your friend is safe,” she answered after a while, her tone suddenly much more serious before. “And if you’re truly worried about further threat from the IceWings, he’s likely your best and most willing source of information at the moment. Not to mention, it’s good habit to check up on your friends. You never know how much time you have left with them in your life.” She looked at Mirage, then Copper, her giant wings perfectly still at her sides. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is why I married you.” Mirage nodded quickly, standing up and bumping his shoulder against hers. “I’ll speak with Hyena again; your friend may be able to warn us in advance if there are any attacks being set up, Copper. I’ll see what I can do about having a patrol be sent up there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I volunteer?” Copper asked, standing as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you want to?” She nodded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then go for it.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Chapter 23</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“I can’t believe you talked us into this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh shut up, you know you want to see him too.” Tarantula whacked Dusty with her wing, then darted out of the way before he could bite her. “Besides, this is the first time we’ve all gotten to work together since we got initiated!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m just surprised we’re the ones doing this.” Drift’s wings shivered and he shook his head. “Why not send Mirage? Or Saguaro? Or Cheetah? Someone with experience? Someone that knows what they’re doing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We know what we’re doing,” Roadrunner argued. “We fly in, we talk to Polar, we fly out and report to Hyena. No big deal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No big deal, except for that tiny part where the IceWings might be planning to attack again and we might all die,” Sandstone also shivered, his crest bristling along his neck. “I agree with Drift, this is crazy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re pretty much the only dragons that Polar knows from the Scorpion Den, and Hyena didn’t want to risk Mirage’s life with the talk of war going around. We’re low enough in the ranks and close enough to Polar that they likely won’t try anything,” Copper said quickly, quoting her father’s words from the night before. “We should be fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m surprised your mom isn’t here with us, Copper,” Roadrunner glanced over at her. “Why didn’t she come? Isn’t she...y’know…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. But Beetle talked to her and convinced her to stay, I have no idea how, but she did.” Copper shrugged. “I’m just worried about Polar.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me too,” Tarantula agreed. “I hope he’s okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We all do.” Sandstone sighed, but he looked a little calmer than before. “I...I’m sure he’s alright though.” He brushed Copper’s wingtips with his, and she nodded to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Either way, we’ll find out soon enough.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She’d nearly forgotten how cold the north was, but as they flew on the memories came back with a painful clarity--frozen wings, shaking talons, shivering scales, all day long as they flew and all night long as they slept. Even the warmth of the SandWings surrounding Copper at night hardly kept away the cold, their entire group piled up in a mound of sleeping dragons on the cold sand to sleep. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper sometimes wondered in those moments if that was what it was like to have siblings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they flew, dunes turned to rocky hills, which soon became sharp piercing mountains. Dust became snow, shrubbery became scarcer and scarcer until there was none, and then they were flying over a carpet of white, completely unbroken in the cold, alien world below. The landscape was both terrible and beautiful; dangerous but incredible. The snow sparkled like diamonds in the sun, though Copper had trouble appreciating it when her wings were freezing off.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then they were at the dome again. Owl lead them to it this time, accompanied by a different dragon than before. It was a light blue IceWing, he introduced himself as Everest and scowled at them even more than Quartz had, though when he spoke to them he sounded much more formal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Choose three to come,” he told them while the twins and Roadrunner gawked at the ice walls of the dome. “The others will remain behind; I will escort you to your friend. You will be allowed to remain for one hour.” His sharp tone made Copper think of icicles and shards of ice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, Copper has to go,” Drift pointed out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll stay,” Roadrunner said, eyeing the IceWing guards outside with a scowl. Dusty glanced at his twin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll come,” he said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright,” Copper nodded. She accepted the three bracelets from Himalaya and clipped them shut around her friend’s wrists, and they followed Everest out into the frozen world outside--except this time, they wouldn’t be freezing to death the whole way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper squinted at the mountains ahead of them, trying to remember where Polar’s cave was as they flew. Eventually, she gave up and let Everest guide them over the tundra that all looked the same. Some snow seemed to have covered the white flakes that had been there before, and the ground glittered as they flew over it, though it was still nothing compared to the areas further south. The white flakes hadn’t glittered. Copper wanted to ask Everest about it, but she didn’t think he’d take too kindly to being questioned and kept her mouth shut, as did the twins. They flew next to each other just ahead of Copper, glancing at each other and brushing their wingtips; talking without words again. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I wonder what they’re saying, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was no time to ask; Everest soon began spiraling downwards with Copper and the twins staying close behind. A white snout poked out of the darkness of the cave as they landed, followed by two beady eyes that were nearly black in color. Not the intense, live-coal black of Miage’s eyes, but the harsh glitter of something malicious. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing here?” the IceWing growled at the group. She was different from the one that had confronted them before; if Copper had to guess this was Polar’s older sister. “And </span>
  <em>
    <span>what </span>
  </em>
  <span>in the three moons are </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” she gestured to Copper with a serrated claw. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m Polar’s friend,” Copper said evenly, ignoring how the question had been directed at her unclear heritage. “We wish to speak with him.” She heard the flap of wings behind her and realized that Everest had left; he’d be back soon though, she knew. The IceWings didn’t really seem to trust anybody. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I see.” The IceWing glared down her snout at the odd trio for a long time, then whipped around and disappeared back into the cave, her whip-thin tail nearly striking Copper in the face as she vanished from sight. She ducked away with a hiss, and the twins exchanged angry looks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Northern scum,” one of them growled under his breath. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guys, what are you doing here?” Copper glanced up abruptly as her friend appeared, her sigh of relief cut short by the panicked look in the little IceWing’s eyes, as well as a littering of small scars that hadn’t been there before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar...we came to check on you…” Drift frowned. “What’s wrong?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar stared at them for a long time, his ears flicking. Then he swung his head back and forth and silently motioned for the others to follow him. He led them away from the mouth of the cave to a small outcropping, where he gathered the others in close. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You guys can’t be here!” he hissed, eyes darting between his friends and the cave entrance some ways away. “Why did you come back?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We were worried about you!” Copper whispered sharply, working to keep her voice down. “Polar, what’s wrong? Why...what happened to you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re not safe,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re not safe,” he repeated. “They’re coming after you! Soon! Things are only getting worse...I-I’m so scared, Copper.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay okay, calm down,” Copper tentatively reached out a wing, heart thumping anxiously against her chest. Polar flinched at the motion, but then looked up and hesitantly leaned into her. “We’re here for you,” she whispered firmly. “Whatever you need, we’re here to help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar breathed out a long sigh. “I thought it would get better...but it’s only gotten worse. They’re…” he looked up and shook his head. “It’s not safe to tell you here. Go back to the dome; start flying back. I’ll catch up with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Running away again?” Dusty whispered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could say that...I’ve written a message, my parents will find it when I disappear. I wanted to say goodbye this time. Three moons I was so wrong to come back...oh Copper, I’m so sorry! I messed everything up and now--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar! Stop that!” Copper hissed fiercely, shaking her head. “Do </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>blame yourself for this. You’ll be okay, we’ll take you back. We’ll fix this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You didn’t mess anything up by hoping your family had changed,” Drift added. “I understand; they mean a lot to you. But if they’re hurting you...none of us want to see you hurt, Polar.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tears glistened in the little IceWing’s eyes as he looked up at them. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you so much...for everything.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before anybody could say anything else, a shout erupted from the cave. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“POLAR! GET YOUR USELESS TAIL BACK IN HERE, NOW!” Polar jumped, then looked back at the trio. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll find you,” he promised. “Go back, and I’ll find you.” Copper nodded, glancing up as another IceWing descended towards the mountainside--Everest was back, she realized. Their time was up. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He’s probably been watching us the whole time. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She swallowed a growl and spread her wings, followed by the twins, and they shot into the sky after the larger dragon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper worried about her friend all the way back to the dome, and judging from the twins’ expressions so did they. She’d never seen Polar look so frightened before; not even when she’d scared him in the middle of the forest, not even when their tribes had almost gone to war with each other. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Something was completely and horribly </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Roadrunner looked up as Copper and the twins burst into the dome, pulling the circlets off their talons and dragging the others outside before they could ask questions or even object. The IceWings looked at them strangely as they hurried south, and Copper wouldn’t let her friends say anything until she was sure they were completely out of earshot. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My mother was right,” she told them, breathlessly. “They’re coming after us again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How?” Tarantula asked, alarmed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know...but something was really off, I’ve never seen Polar act so weird…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He was terrified!” Dusty broke in with wide eyes, shaking his head. “Like...it was bad! Bad, bad, bad!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And he said he’d come meet us out here,” Drift added. “He’s coming back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“YES!” Tarantula’s triumphant shout was cut off as the others hissed her into silence, and she glared at all of them before shaking her head and scanning the white landscape below them. Copper joined her, stopping midair to hover when she thought she saw a mound of snow shifting beneath her metallic wings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold up! Polar?” she called. The mound shifted again, unfurling itself, and as it did the features of a dragon became more clear as a flash of silver and blue rushed up to meet them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my gosh you guys are okay!” Polar cried, flinging himself into the group who caught him in their wings. “I didn’t think you’d make it out...I didn’t think I’d make it out! Hurry, hurry, start flying!” He pushed them forward and took the lead, flapping as fast as his white wings would take him. “We gotta get out of here, fast!” Tarantula looked at the little IceWing with an expression that was some combination of confused and worried and afraid; the others exchanged bewildered glances before they followed after their friend. Whatever had happened while he was gone, it hadn’t been good.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polar said nothing to them until they were far away from the Ice Kingdom, and the snow-capped hills had turned to rolling sagebrush and sand. There he finally collapsed, his chest heaving, on a small outcropping of rock. The others followed him down and landed nearby; nobody knew what to say so nobody said anything, looking between each other and their IceWing friend with bewildered expressions. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What in the three moons is going on?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>They waited for Polar to catch his breath, which took some time--Copper had never seen her friend fly so quickly before, nor for such a long period of time. When he could finally breathe properly, the others leaned in as he explained to them what had happened after he left. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s hardly any food left...dragons are starving...they were planning on killing me...wasn’t supposed to know but I found out...planning to ambush you guys...steal your food and treasure...they couldn’t trust me after what happened last time...planned on getting rid of me so I couldn’t stop them...should’ve known better...you guys saved my life…” Polar spoke quickly, his words jumbled and slurred, but Copper heard enough to understand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And they’re...not going to be happy when they find out you’re gone.” Polar nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They...don’t know that I know of their plan yet...still think I don’t know...heard a conversation I wasn’t supposed to…” Polar’s wings shook. “We have to stop them! They’re gonna kill everybody!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not if we have any say in it,” Roadrunner growled, lashing her tail back and forth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How are they even going to get to the Scorpion Den though? Why not just attack the palace? We’re so far in they’re bound to be spotted.” Polar shook his head vigorously. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Palace too well guarded...be easier to go after the den...bribed a bunch of dragons inside...small army from the north...paint...found paint…” The little IceWing cut himself off with a fit of coughing, and the SandWings exchanged worried looks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay...okay...we have enough time, we just gotta warn Hyena. Fast.” Dusty looked at the others, then at Copper. She caught the look and found herself nodding. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll meet you guys in the Scorpion Den. Polar...we owe you everything.” Copper threw her wings around her friend and pulled him close. “You’ll be okay,” she whispered to him. “I promise.” Polar hesitated before hugging her back, then released her and nodded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Let’s go stop a war.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Chapter 24</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Copper hadn’t tested how fast she could fly in a long time; most of her flight training in the Scorpion Den involved agility exercises instead of stamina practice, so she had no idea what she was capable of. She forced herself to fly faster than she ever had before, the urgency of her message spurring her on through the night and into the next day. Around noon she saw the walls of the Scorpion Den rising into the sky in the distance and despite her aching wings put on a burst of speed. The guard at the front gate winced as she landed in a cloud of dust in front of her, then frowned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper? Where’s the rest of your troop?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“On their way. I have urgent news for Hyena.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The guard looked Copper over, then nodded. “You know the way. And hurry…” she frowned. “I’ve heard the gossip; Hyena’s going to want to know about this.” Copper gave her a quick nod. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will.” She pushed past and into the city, breaking into a run up the streets towards the center. Exhaustion tugged at her mind and pain at her talons but she continued on regardless--the Outclaws had to be ready when the IceWings came. If they weren’t...Copper didn’t want to think about that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She reached the tents, pushed past the guards there, and crashed into Hyena’s tent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyena!” The Outclaw leader turned, and taking one look at Copper’s panicked face flicked her tail at the SkyWing she’d been talking to. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Everyone out, now,” she ordered. The guards escorted the sharp orange-colored dragon out of the tent and disappeared themselves, leaving just Hyena and a breathless Copper inside. “What happened?” She demanded. “Where are the others? What are they planning?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re coming,” Copper said. “They were going to kill Polar because he knew us but we got him out; the others sent me ahead to warn you and the others. The army’s coming back, Polar said there wouldn’t be very many of them because they have dragons in here already that are going to betray you. He said they’d use paint to camouflage themselves and I don’t know what else...they’re planning an ambush, I don’t know where or how.” Copper stopped herself and watched Hyena for a reaction. She said nothing for a long time, then she stood up and strode to the tent flap. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go rest,” she ordered. “You’ve done enough for now. I need to prepare my dragons.” With that, she turned and disappeared into the bright sunlight outside. Copper stayed inside the empty tent for a moment longer, before she too went outside. She shivered as the hot light hit her scales, remembering the cold of the north and shaking it away as she went to her tent. Her father was probably busy and Hyena had given her orders; she could talk to her parents about what was come later. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>If we have a later, </span>
  </em>
  <span>her mind whispered. She shook the thought away and went to her tent. Copper looked at the canvas walls for a long time, remembering her first night in the Scorpion Den when she’d felt so alone and isolated even among thousands of other dragons like herself. Now, she had friends; a family; a place where she belonged and knew she belonged. Memories crowded inside her mind as she settled down on her bed of camel skins, listening to the sounds of the Scorpion Den and its markets in the distance, taking in the moment. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And she remembered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Hey guys, who wants to play tag?” Tarantula pounced on Copper’s tail and she yelped, scrambling away from the little SandWing and glaring at her. “What was that for?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>"Ow!” Roadrunner leaped to her feet as well when Tarantula nipped her tail, crashing into the sleeping twins and sending all of them sprawling. A cloud of dust rose into the air from where they fell, setting off a fit of coughing in Copper when it drifted over to where she stood. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Was that really necessary?” Drift snapped, standing up followed by Dusty, who also looked angry. Roadrunner didn’t bother for words and tackled Tarantula, both of them shrieking and laughing and shouting insults at each other as they rolled around in the sand. Copper flinched, worried that the two would accidentally hurt each other, but that never seemed to happen. The dragonets fought all the time, and not only didn’t they seem to mind, it was almost like they enjoyed it. She shook her head and sat down; this was going to be a lot to get used to.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Are...are we playing?” she asked after Roadrunner and Tarantule seemed to have calmed down somewhat.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“We will, once they decide to quit fighting,” Sandstone shook his head and laughed. “They do that a lot.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I...I noticed.” Copper looked between Sandstone and the twins, then up at Roadrunner and Tarantula as they each stood up. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She’s it,” they said at the same time, pointing at each other with their talons. Roadrunner rolled her eyes. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Whatever, I’m the best anyways.” She sat down and put her talons over her face. “Better start running.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The dragonets exchanged glances and took off, scattering sand in all directions as they rushed to their hiding places all over the Outclaw region of the Scorpion Den. Copper had spotted something the day before on one of her walks and rushed towards it, stopping when she came to a pile of sticks, tools, and a large heap of canvas--someone was building a tent there, and that made it the perfect hiding place. Copper lifted the edge of the tarp and slipped underneath, settling into the cool sand beneath its shade to wait. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Long minutes ticked by, until she heard snuffling outside her hiding place. It came closer and closer, then suddenly stopped. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Copper! I smell you!” Cried a gleeful Tarantula. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Wha--how!?” Copper poked her snout out from underneath the canvas, glaring at the smaller SandWing. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“We’re SandWings, we’re the best smellers!” Tarantula laughed. “Also, I don’t know what a SkyWing smells like, but I think that’s what you smell like, because you don’t smell like any SandWing I know.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“We...you can recognize my smell?” Copper sniffed at the air around her--dust, hot, and canvas. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>"It’s not bad,” Tarantula said hurriedly. “Just different. So you’re kinda easier to find. Better find a way to give me more of a challenge!” With that she turned and ran off, and Copper watched her go. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Oh I will,” she muttered. “I’ll give you a challenge.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper found herself smiling as she remembered those days; and she had kept her promise about giving Tarantula a challenge as well. With some tips from Mamba she’d learned how to mask her scent, and worked out how to use her speed and flexibility to her advantage. Later, when she used those skills in their games she did quite well, and even the twins admitted they were impressed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come back soon guys,” Copper whispered, shaking her head. A soft breeze lifted the edge of her tent flap and Copper gazed past it into the Scorpion Den. She felt so protective of this place now, this place that had taken her in and given her friends and a family and a life she’d never have gotten to know otherwise. This was </span>
  <em>
    <span>her </span>
  </em>
  <span>home. These were </span>
  <em>
    <span>her </span>
  </em>
  <span>dragons. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And nobody, </span>
  <em>
    <span>nobody </span>
  </em>
  <span>was going to take that away from her.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Chapter 25</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Fly and Mirage found Copper that evening, and in a rush she told them about Polar and the ominous message she’d been sent back with. She had never seen her father so serious nor her mother so worried, and that alone scared her more than anything else. Worse yet, a tense shadow seemed to materialize over the Scorpion Den overnight; the normally rowdy Outclaws were uncharacteristically quiet and serious--this time, even they understood the gravity of the situation. There was no way to evacuate the Scorpion Den, no way to know which dragons were on their side and which were enemies. All they could do was wait. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper hated waiting. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>But what else could she do?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next day the patrol group returned with Polar, all of them exhausted from their flight, wings flopping tiredly at their sides as they landed. Hyena couldn’t wait for them to rest--she immediately took Polar aside into her tent, where they talked for hours in hushed tones while the others waited...again, more waiting. Copper was starting to hate that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She knew that Polar was telling Hyena everything--an operation like this, if not handled correctly, could only end in disaster. Everything had to work, and work perfectly. But that didn’t make the wait any easier. If anything Copper felt even more agitated than before, pacing back and forth in front of the tent until Polar finally reappeared, barely balancing himself on his wobbly claws as he stepped out of the tent. Tarantula and the others rushed over to him, question in their eyes, but none of them willing to say anything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The IceWings were planning an ambush, Polar told them after a long hesitation. They had planned to kidnap one of Hyena’s advisors and use them as ransom in exchange for food and treasure while the others served as backup--the IceWings would never admit they were starving, if anything the treasure was essentially useless to them at that point and only served as a cover. What surprised Copper, however, was how their tactic essentially had been planned to avoid bloodshed, rather than to cause it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They can’t fight very well; they’re weak,” Mirage explained to her later. “They know they can’t fight off our forces. They have no other choice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper almost felt bad for the IceWings after that; Polar especially seemed to feel awful about it the way he looked at the food offered to him every morning; every evening. Hyena held several meetings over the next few days with her advisors; with the different sectors of camp, with her weapons and armor makers. Everybody had a part to play in the plan she had devised, no dragon was too small or unimportant to help in some way. They were going to stop the IceWings and end the conflicts between them, once and for all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want my dragons dead over this,” Hyena had said, mamy times. “There’s a way to end this without killing. That’s the way I’m going to try.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Now all that was left to do was wait. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sandstone’s troop stayed together as much as possible when they weren’t patrolling, and they talked a lot under the shade of the palms or as they walked through camp. Ideas, worries, fears, plans, over and over and over they went over those subjects in tones of worry and barely-concealed fear. They were all aware that the attack could come at any moment, and if anything not knowing when they might die scared Copper all the more. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fly was little short of frantic. She had tried desperately to convince Copper to evacuate, to convince Mirage to take her away, but both stubbornly refused. They weren’t leaving their friends and family behind. They weren’t going to let those they cared about face something that they wouldn’t themselves. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They wanted to fight. They had to fight</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ve served Hyena, and before her Thorn, for longer than Copper’s been alive. I’m not leaving now,” Mirage had said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My friends mean everything to me. I’m not letting them do this without me,” was all Copper would say. Pressing her only got her to stop talking altogether, and eventually Fly was forced to give up. Copper knew that her mother understood, though, and would have done the same in her place. Fly might’ve been worried mad, but she wasn’t stupid. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When it became clear that arguing wouldn’t work and nobody was changing their minds, Fly settled for drilling herself and Sandstone’s troop relentlessly whenever she could find them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luckily for Copper and the others, however, the troop had gotten a bit better at hiding. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  
  <span>On one such occasion Copper found herself backed into an alleyway with her friends crammed against her, trying to hush their giggles while she listened to Fly’s voice call for them outside.  “I cannot believe you guys have me doing this...she’s gonna kill me when she finds us!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>If</span>
  </em>
  <span> she finds us,” Roadrunner corrected, sending the others into another fit of giggles. Unlike Copper, she loved turning this into a game, even when death was looming over them at that very moment in the form of hundreds of IceWings...somewhere out in the desert, and even in their own Den. It seemed to be the Outclaw way of stress relief--make it stupid, make it a game, forget how serious it is. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper almost hated how well it worked. And while she wasn’t happy about hiding from her own mother, she hated the training Fly was trying to make them do even more. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I like Fly,” Polar stated quietly. “She’s nice to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Move forward!” Copper hissed suddenly. She crept down the alleyway and poked her snout out into the evening light of the Scorpion Den, then silently motioned for her friends to follow her. </span>
  <em>
    <span>All clear. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The troop eased their way into the street and began cautiously walking; blending into the crowd while keeping Polar and Copper in the center of the group so as to shield them as much as possible against being seen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sandstone, is that you?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“RUN!” Sandstone shrieked, and the troop burst out into laughter as they broke formation and took off sprinting down the streets. Copper pulled Polar into a side road and they slowed to a walk, and she burst out laughing when she saw her mother’s ruby-red frame running through the crowds after a panicked Roadrunner. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did she not see us?” Polar asked as he watched them go, bewildered. Copper shrugged. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Skill,” she said, and laughed again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What in the three moons are you doing dragging that runt around?” Copper’s blood froze at the nasty familiarity of the tone, and she spun around with a snarl as a pale brown SandWing as she sauntered into view. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Screw off, Lithop,” Copper snapped, lashing her tail and putting herself between Polar and the SandWing. “Don’t you have some streets to sweep?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, maybe I don’t feel like--” The guard’s words were cut short as Copper flung herself into her, throwing Lithop into the cobblestone walkway and slamming a talon down on her throat. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then you’ll answer to Mirage next,” she snarled in the other dragon’s ear as a trickle of blood skirted down her neck. “And I can tell you he won’t be happy to hear you’re insulting the very dragon who probably saved your worthless scales.” Copper bared her teeth at Lithop. “So, your choice I guess. What’ll it be?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-I’ll leave, I’ll leave!” Lithop burst out quickly, shoving Copper’s talon away and sprinting off into the tents. Copper stepped back, watching the guard disappear under a canopy before she was gone from view. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who was that?” Polar asked, making Copper jump--she’d forgotten he was there with her.  “Sorry, I-I just...she looked familiar…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s because she’s the dragon who arrested me that night they found us in the forest. Dumb as a rock with an ego bigger than half the continent,” Copper shook her head. “I can’t believe I was ever afraid of her.” She started up the street again, and Polar fell into step beside her. They walked in silence for some time, before Polar glanced up at the setting sun and then at Copper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We should get back to camp and find the others,” he said nervously. “It’s getting dark.” Copper glanced up, then nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, let’s go.” She led her friend up several side streets that went around the congested main ones, and before long they were standing on familiar Outclaw sand again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar! Copper! There you are!” Roadrunner burst out of one of the nearby tents and slammed into Copper, knocking her over while Tarantula appeared and pounced on Polar. “You guys are okay! Three moons, you gave us a scare! You know...with all the stuff going around…” Suddenly Roadrunner’s face turned serious, and she helped Copper up. “They think the IceWings will be here tonight. We’re supposed to be getting into position soon here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Okay.” Copper felt her throat tighten at Roadrunner’s somber words. She already missed seeing the laughter in her friend’s eyes, but she shook the thought away and quietly  followed Roadrunner and the others to a shadowy area near her father’s tent. Now was not the time to be distracted. A not-so-randomly placed sheet of canvas had been haphazardly piled near their space, and Copper and Polar carefully hid under it while the others dug themselves into the sand. All around camp she could see others silently doing the same; ducking under tent flaps, burying spears and each other under the sand, hiding in places of deep shadow around the perimeter. In mere moments the camp looked desolate; empty; asleep. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If only it were. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If only the Outclaws really were asleep, safe and sound in their tents, unafraid and unworried.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>If only this was just a bad dream, and they’d all wake up from it tomorrow.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nothing moved. Copper could hear her heart thumping loudly in her ears and occasionally glanced over at where she knew her friend was in the darkness, wondering how he felt. She couldn’t see Polar but she knew that he was there, his wings occasionally causing the canvas above them to rustle slightly as he tried to keep his talons from falling asleep underneath him in the sand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar...you have that bracelet, right?” Copper whispered, so quietly she hardly even heard herself. “The one I gave you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No answer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Polar?” She heard her friend shift uncomfortably, and let out a quiet sigh. “You gave it to your sister, didn’t you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A pause. Then, “I just wanted her to be safe. I...I’m sorry, Copper. I know you wanted me to keep it but I felt selfish, and I was going to leave and I wanted Permafrost to be okay...please tell me you understand?” Polar whispered. Copper sighed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do,” she whispered, even though she wasn’t sure she did. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That doesn’t matter...I’ll just have to watch him...I can’t lose him. Not--</span>
  </em>
</p><p><span>Her thoughts were cut off when she felt Polar tense, and peered under the canvas at the dimly-lit world beyond. Something was moving around outside, and when Copper looked closer at it she could see the outline of a dragon. </span><em><span>That’s not a SandWing, </span></em><span>she realized with a sharp inhale.</span> <span>The dragon’s build wasn’t right; there was no crest, only horns. Lots of horns. </span></p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>IceWing. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then the bugle went off. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Chapter 26</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>All around camp, dragons suddenly burst to life. They crashed out of tent flaps, barreled out of the shadows, and erupted from the sands in geysers of dust, all shouting, charging towards the nearest enemy with spears and other weapons at the ready. Copper flung the canvas away and shot out from beneath with a roar, yanking her spear up from the sand and flinging herself into the IceWing in front of her while her friends followed on her tail. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Torches lit up all around them, throwing fiery shadows around the camp. Outclaws had been assigned to light the torches at the minute of the attack so that the SandWings could see their enemies; in minutes the camp went from dead and dark to illuminated by fire and terrifyingly alive. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The IceWing’s camouflage had worked well. There were no flashes of silver and blue that night; only sand-scales upon dust and pale shades of brown and yellow as fire and frostbreath and the clashing of spears filled the air around them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper’s troop faced off with three IceWings; the twins launched themselves at one while Sandstone and Roadrunner attacked another and Copper found herself joined by Polar and Tarantula as they went after the third one. Copper knocked into the IceWing’s snout before she could blast them with her frostbreath, and Tarantula and Polar crashed into her side, knocking her into the sand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>All around camp the same results occurred again and again and again--the IceWings went down, fast; too fast. Mirage had been right about their forces--there were at least two Outclaws for every IceWing, maybe more, and the IceWings were too weak to really hold them off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something was wrong. Copper held the IceWing’s head in the sand with her talons, shivers rushing up her body at the chill of her scales. Hyena rose up out of the dust, flying over the halted fight and shouting so that everyone could hear her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“IceWings!” she bellowed. “I would not suggest struggling; we have your leader in our talons.” She opened her mouth to say more, but before she could several IceWings that had been held down by SandWings were up, and they all rushed at her. A dragon she couldn’t identify flung himself in front of them, releasing a blast of fire into the group. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What the--? </span>
  </em>
  <span>In that moment of confusion Copper’s grip on the IceWing loosened, and she whipped out of her talons before any of them could react, knocking over Tarantula with her tail before she disappeared. Shouts of confusion echoed around the tents, everywhere SandWings were suddenly lashing out at each other--those weren’t Outclaws, Copper realized with horror. They were the betrayers Polar had warned them of!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two IceWings tackled Sandstone to the ground and Copper rushed towards them, but before she could a SandWing landed on top of her and they both went sprawling. The SandWing scrambled to his feet, but before he could attack again something that almost looked like glittering smoke rolled into his wing and he dropped to the ground, screaming in pain.  Copper whipped her head around and saw Polar hurtle past her and into the IceWings crushing Sandstone down. She joined the fight, launching herself into the first IceWing and dragging her off of Sandstone. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Watch their claws, watch their mouths. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper released a blast of fire into the IceWing’s face and she shrieked and fell back, clawing at her eyes with her talons. Another Outclaw pounced and finished her off. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“STAY TOGETHER!” Roadrunner shrieked. Copper rushed towards the cry and found her friends, hurriedly forming themselves into a defensive circle against the attacks. A space opened up for her and she darted into it. A SandWing rushed and Copper and Sandstone both shot flames at him while Tarantula and Roadrunner darted in on either side to quickly finish the job. Polar’s frostbreath froze limbs and tails, allowing the others to bring down the injured dragons in his wake. They held together, defending each other, and Copper was beginning to think they might win after all. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That was when it happened. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper found herself grappling with an IceWing that was nearly twice her size; her fire had disabled his frostbreath but there was no way to disable teeth or claws; she kicked at his jaws and bit into the soft underside of his neck; refusing to let go while the IceWing thrashed about and lashed out at her undefended flanks with his claws. She felt them digging into her sides but didn’t let go of her hold--doing so would mean death more certainly than his claws. The IceWing’s blood seeped in her mouth, horrible and alive. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I have to kill him. I have no choice. I have to kill him. I have no choice. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper bit down harder, struggling for purchase, then let a blast of fire seeped through her jaws into the IceWing’s throat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rather quickly, the other dragon stopped struggling and went limp in the sand, sand that was stained red and dark blue with blood. Copper let go and dropped his bleeding body, looking up and desperately trying to find what had happened to Polar. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And she saw it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Drift was limping towards his twin, his sides dripping with blood that did and didn’t belong to him. An IceWing saw him; started running. Copper’s eyes widened and she started running too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“DRIFT!” she screamed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her friend turned to look at her, his eyes going wide with pain and horror as the IceWing crashed into him, digging her deadly claws into his stomach before he could even cry out. Dusty whirled around, and Copper saw in his eyes the same terror that was in hers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“NO!” Dusty rushed at the IceWing, biting her jaw and lashing out at her neck with his claws. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Blood. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>So much blood. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Too much blood. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper forgot about the IceWing, forgot about Dusty, forgot about the Scorpion Den and her father and Polar and the battle. There was only Drift, staggering in the sand, his eyes unfocused and glassy with pain. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Drift!” she shouted again. Slowly, painfully, her friend looked up at her and smiled faintly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyrax? Is that you?” he asked. The crimson stain in the sand was growing under Drift’s body, spreading like a horrible, evil flower. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No Drift...it’s me...Copper. Your friend?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There’s nothing I can do. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There’s nothing I can do. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Too much blood. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He’s dying. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He’s dying and I can’t do anything. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Drift smiled sadly. “Ah yes...Copper. Sad friend. Good...good friend. Hyrax, I knew you’d come back.” He rambled on, looking not at Copper but at something else. Something hit her shoulder and she found Dusty standing next to her, looking between her and his brother with a horrified, terrified expression. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Drift, Drift no!” he shouted as his twin collapsed, running to his side. “Drift, no! You can’t die! You can’t leave me here!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Someone was shouting; through the numbness Copper was vaguely aware that the fighting had stopped. Why, she didn’t know. She didn’t care. She felt frozen; her talons wouldn’t move; couldn’t move. She was bleeding, but that didn’t matter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Drift!” Dusty was sobbing now, holding his brother’s shoulders in his talons. “Drift, no!” Copper suddenly felt her talons move, and realized that she was coming closer. Tears were streaming down her cheeks; down Dusty’s. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to Hyrax,” Drift whispered, his eyes suddenly seeming to focus on his twin. “We’ll wait for you, Dusty. I…” His body convulsed and he started coughing violently, before he recovered enough to speak again. “I...I love you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then his eyes closed, his body becoming limp in his twin’s arms. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Drift? Drift! DRIFT!” Something touched Copper’s shoulder and she jumped; Sandstone’s tear-streaked face met hers. Then she looked back and saw Roadrunner and Tarantula and Polar. All of them were crying. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No...no he can’t be dead...he can’t be…” Tarantula whispered with wide eyes. “He can’t be gone.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But he was. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And their lives would never be the same. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>---</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper didn’t remember much else from what happened that night. An Outclaw somewhere explained that they had won and the IceWings had left; but she couldn’t recall why. Food? They were hungry. Hyena had threatened to kill all of them if they ever came back. She remembered red wings wrapped around her, the warmth of her father’s embrace. He’d said something to her. What? Copper didn’t know. Someone had led her to her tent and left her there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Three days. Three days sleeping, three days of numbness and shock, three days of pain. A service was held for the Outclaws that had died, and she couldn’t remember if she’d gone or not. </span>
</p><p>
  
  <em>
    <span>Drift is gone. Drift is gone. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Her memories tortured her; her dreams taunted her. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I couldn’t save him. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There was too much blood. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I tried. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I tried. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It wasn’t enough. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On the fourth day she heard Fly and Mirage talking in the next tent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I got a letter,” Fly was saying. “Dragonfly, the RainWing that saved my life. She’s offered her home to us should I wish to go back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Rainforest?” Mirage sounded startled. “You want me to retire?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mirage…” Fly sighed. “It’s not just about you. Mamba’s probably never going to be able to fly again, Copper hasn’t said a word in four days, and her friends are absolutely devastated by what happened. Especially Dusty...maybe...maybe it would help if we left.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And leave their home? Everything they’ve ever known just to hang out with a bunch of RainWings?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I’d be kind of sad if I was there all alone,” a third voice admitted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You told Mamba?” Mirage’s irritated voice shot through the tent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well...yes, I did. He needs to heal, he can’t be an Outclaw if he can’t even fight. You’ve lived here for so long, Mirage, haven’t you seen enough violence? The war ended just for us to come here and start another one! Don’t you want your daughter to know a life of peace? Our daughter?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s an Outclaw, Fly, and a damn good one.” Mirage growled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll go.” Copper stood up and pushed her way into the other tent, nearly falling as her talons wobbled unsteadily under her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper!” Her father looked surprised to see her. “I...I didn’t know...y-you want to leave?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want what’s best for Dusty. His parents are gone and his siblings are dead...Dad, he’ll never fight again…” Copper’s voice cracked and she looked down, unable to hold eye contact with her father. Something gentle wrapped around her shoulder, and she knew it was Fly’s wing. “We can’t just dump him somewhere where he’s all alone,” Copper almost choked as she continued. “We...we’re his family, Dad. He needs a place to start again...I know...I know that if I had to, I could fight again. But Dusty can’t, not anymore. Not after Drift...And because he’s my family...I...I’ll go for him.” She looked at Mirage, then at Fly, both staring at her in stunned silence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll go talk to the others,” Copper decided after a moment, pulling away from her mother.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, Copper,” her father called after her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Copper was already leaving. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I want to go home,” she said. “For real this time.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Chapter 27</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Polar agreed immediately to Copper’s proposal. Sandstone. Roadrunner. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For Dusty,” they all said. Beetle told them they could visit her whenever they wanted, but Hyena still needed work to be done; she was staying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tarantula also wanted to stay, and no amount of pleading could convince her otherwise. She was too afraid to leave the place she’d grown up in; too afraid to jump into a life different from everything she’d ever known.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go without me,” she’d whispered with tear-stained scales. “Just...go. I’m not coming.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe she’ll still come...one day, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper thought, trying desperately to be hopeful, trying not to think about how they’d soon be leaving one of her best friends behind. Her talons shook under her as she went from Tarantula’s tent, and her eyes felt unfocused; like the world wasn’t real. Like everything was a game. Fake. Like the games they had played before the ambush, before Drift…</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper growled to herself, pressing on despite those awful thoughts with a new determination, forcing her talons to take step after step as she crossed the Outclaw camp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At last, she arrived at Dusty’s tent, the rest of her troop just behind her. Quietly, Copper peered inside. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And her heart broke. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dusty was in a fitful sleep on the bare sand floor; his talons and wings had scraped a shallow bowl of sand out around his body as he tossed and turned, and everything else was a mess flung around the sides. The twin’s barely-healing injuries were scraped raw with sand, and he shivered pitifully as the flap opened; though he didn’t open his eyes. Splotches of blood clumped together in the sand all around him. Copper exchanged looks with the rest of the troop, each of them horrified to see their friend in such an awful condition, and Sandstone hesitantly approached their friend. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dusty?” he whispered, his voice ever-so soft. When the other SandWing didn’t answer he gently nudged his shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“DRIFT!” Dusty jumped up and his tail whipped around, narrowly missing Sandstone’s head as he frantically ducked out of the way. The smaller SandWing’s wide eyes scanned the group, and his shoulders slumped when he realized where he was. Dusty started to turn away, but before he could Sandstone cautiously placed a talon on his shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I--Dusty please...just, just hear me out. Please...” Dusty’s ear flicked back and he stopped, but didn’t turn. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fly recently got a letter from one of her friends in the rainforest,” Sandstone spoke softly and the others froze in place, none willing to so much as breathe if it only meant they could reach their friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s...from a RainWing...her name is Dragonfly. She’s invited Copper’s family to come and...Dusty...you...you’re a part of our family. We’d never want to leave you behind and--and, well...we want to know if you’d, um...like to come with us.” Sandstone swallowed once he’d finished, looking a bit embarrassed for how he’d stumbled over his words. Copper brushed her wingtips with his, and nodded to him when he turned to her. He gave her a tiny smile, then their gazes both shifted to Dusty again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a long time, their friend didn’t move. He stood so still he looked like a statue; Copper wasn’t even sure if he was breathing or not, but after a small eternity Dusty slowly turned around. His eyes locked with Copper’s, and gave her a tiny nod. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Family,” he whispered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The final total added up to eight dragons--Fly, Mirage, Copper, Mamba, Sandstone, Roadrunner, Dusty, and Polar. Hyena wasn’t excited to hear the news when they brought it to her, but she didn’t seem to be surprised either. Copper wondered if they’d be missed, though at the same time she was too tired to really care.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That night, a party was thrown for the group before they left, though the tone of the celebration felt much more somber than the troop’s initiation ceremony or Copper’s welcoming party had been. Copper couldn’t believe it--only six months she’d spent in this place, and it had completely and irreversibly changed her life. Nothing would ever be the same because she had come here. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So, was it worth it?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The question rolled around in Copper’s mind as she paced through the crowds that night, followed by her friends and yet never having felt more alone and isolated than she did right then. Here she was, surrounded by dragons; her family, her friends, everybody she’d ever known and loved, and yet they might have been a million miles away for how close they seemed to be that night. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mamba greeted them when they passed by, but he looked nothing like he had before. The left side of his body was wrapped in thick white bandages and his right wing, which had been shredded to ribbons, hung limply at his side. He dragged it behind him as he walked, and it dug in the sand to leave a trail behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The troop learned that he was the dragon who had jumped in front of the IceWings in order to save Hyena. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was a hero. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  
  <span>And yet, Mamba did not strut around the sands, or tell stories in laughing tones, or make jokes about Sandstone’s clumsiness even when he accidentally knocked over an entire table of food with his tail. In fact...their mentor didn’t say much of anything at all. He remained quiet as he walked by the others; somber; serious; constantly looking between the sky and his useless shredded wing. It hurt to see the most confident member of the Outclaws looking so dejected; so lost and wounded; and Copper’s heart ached even more to know that there was nothing she could do about it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Snippets of conversations floated in the night air. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“--botched operation, that was...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Never seen Hyena fooled like that before...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“--never expected so many casualties...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Entire troops, wiped out by our own dragons…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“--nobody was prepared for such a bloodbath...”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper felt like she was dreaming as she went back to her tent, her mind buzzing and yet so, so tired at the same time. She tried to sleep but it was nearly impossible, knowing that when she got up again it would be the last time she did so in the Scorpion Den, and that an entirely new chapter of her life was about to begin. Such a big change was hard to process; especially after all that had happened. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper played with the sand between her claws, feeling it bounce off her scales, letting the memories flood over her as she stared dully at the dust beneath her talons. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then, somehow, she fell asleep. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Chapter 28</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It was time to go. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Even as their group started flying for the mountains, Copper could barely register that this was actually happening; that they were actually leaving the Scorpion Den for good; that Mamba and Sandstone and Polar and her friends were coming too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If only Drift were alive, this might have once been a dream come true.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nobody had brought much with them; Copper carried only her spear and had left everything else behind for the Outclaws to do what they wanted with it. She, Mirage, Fly, and Sandstone each held one corner of a large canvas sheet in their talons, together leading the group towards the Rainforest. Mamba was nestled inside the sheet, his snout resting on the edge as he watched the landscape gradually pass beneath him. He didn’t seem to be too happy about having to be carried, but he didn’t complain. Roadrunner and Polar flew at the rear with Dusty, keeping an eye on him while they flew.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The group made its way silently over sand; then sagebrush; then trees. Nobody said anything to anybody else; nobody had anything to say.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then they came to a place that Copper knew all too well. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her cave. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>They hovered at the cave’s entrance for a long time. Copper found herself almost paralyzed by that place; staring into that dark entrance with unfocused eyes. The memories that dark space brought--the anger, the uncertainty, the </span>
  <em>
    <span>terror </span>
  </em>
  <span>of what was to come, the horrible feeling that the walls were getting smaller around you and you’d be crushed. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>But I’m not alone this time. My friends are coming with me. We’re safe now. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Her eyes darted to the flying forms of the dragons around her, as if even she didn’t believe that. Nothing was truly safe, was it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Copper? You okay?” Polar brushed Copper’s wingtips with his, looking at her with worried blue eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I...yeah.” Copper swallowed, forcing a neutral expression onto her face. “Let’s go.” They carefully set the sheet down and Mamba climbed out of it, complaining about how boring it was to ride instead of flying as he set off down the dark corridor. Mirage and Fly followed, Fly bundling the canvas up under her wing as they went. Copper stepped in after them, and Polar stayed close to her side. They were followed by Roadrunner and Dusty, then Sandstone who brought up the rear. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tunnel was deathly silent except for the clack of the dragons’ talons on the stone floor; nobody said a word as they walked for one hour; two hours; three. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts, and nobody had the energy to say anything to anyone else in the gloomy atmosphere. The light at the other end appeared, then gradually brightened as the group continued on towards it. Copper occasionally spat out small bursts of flame to light the cave walls around them; doing it more often when she saw how much Polar seemed to appreciate that. </span>
</p><p>
  
  <span>The silence offered plenty of time for Copper to think. Life was so fragile, she realized...so short...so easy to lose...and yet she had taken it for granted; assumed that her friends would always be there no matter what. She had worried about losing them, yes, but she had never really believed that she could. In her blind hope she had assumed that they would always be there, that they were invincible because they were young and in the end that viewpoint had only hurt her--and looking at her friends, a lot of them had made that mistake too. The mistake of believing that friends were forever, because while friendship could last forever lives unfortunately did not. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Had Fly’s near-death experience taught her nothing after all? Had she really learned nothing from it? Copper asked herself those same questions over and over, horrified by what her own answer might be. </span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Fly had come back. Polar had come back. But Copper’s luck had run out after that. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Drift will never come back. </span>
  </em>
  <span>The memories of that night, the permanence of seeing her friend buried in the desert sand...nothing could change that, nothing could take that away or make her forget. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>But really...would I want to forget? </span>
  </em>
  <span>The sudden question was so simple, but Copper soon realized that she had no answer for  it. She didn’t want to answer it. It hurt too much to think after all that had happened, and work out her own puzzles that she’d created. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What would Drift have done? </span>
  </em>
  <span>she asked herself instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Copper didn’t want to know what Drift would do. She wanted to see him and smell him and touch him and talk to him and know that he was alive and breathing; that the fight had only been a terrible nightmare. But of course, that could never be her reality. Because Drift was dead, his blood drained into the soil, his body covered in the desert’s sand and dust. There was no life in those black eyes anymore, no laughter, no jokes or teasing pranks. All of it was gone in a moment. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Gone. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Gone. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Gone. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Copper let out a soft growl and shook her head, drawing a concerned look from Polar that she decided to pretend she didn’t notice. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Why is this bothering me so much? It’s not like I don’t know what death is...I shouldn’t be so sensitive...</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Something brushed her wingtip and Copper jerked her head up, realizing that she could see Polar’s face in the light that now reached in towards the dragons from the end of the tunnel. It looked like it was pulling the group closer towards the open sky at the end; the place where Copper’s entire adventure had begun. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You okay?” Polar whispered, dragging Copper’s thoughts back to the present once more. Copper sighed and gave a light shake of her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You?” He also shook his head; Copper nodded in understanding. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re almost there,” she whispered. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Thought what that meant anymore, she wasn’t so sure.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A few minutes later the cave walls suddenly sloped upwards and the walls fell away, leaving the group in the spacious main cavern that had once been Copper’s home so many months ago. She stared at it for a long time, then slowly went to her room, leaving the rest of the group behind without so much as another word.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tiny scraps of shredded amber and ebony fur greeted her, covering the stone floor--exactly like she’d left it, nothing different. And Copper remembered that moment; every moment before and after. Every terrible scene; every wonderful memory. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>So much. Too much. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was overwhelming.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Copper?” Fly called hesitantly after her daughter, and she jumped.. “Copper, it’s almost dark; we should get going if we’re going to make it to the RainWings by nightfall.” Copper stared at the stone walls of her room for a little while longer, then turned and stepped back into the main cave. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s go,” she said again, unwilling to let the others see any more emotion from her. Mirage seemed to hesitate, as if he wanted to say something, but then he shook his head and handed her one of the corners of the sheet. Copper took it, barely able to watch as Mamba climbed inside once more. To see someone that had seemed so powerful; invincible before, reduced to a state of need like this was almost too much.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Mamba might never fly again,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Copper remembered her mother’s words as they lifted into the sky above her familiar rainforest home. She looked down at the large SandWing, curled into the sheet, looking out at the rainforest beyond. </span>
  <em>
    <span>At least he’s not dead, </span>
  </em>
  <span>her thoughts whispered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That was true. At least they still had him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The thick green canopy spread out below them in all directions, stopped only by the jagged mountains behind him and the distant sea beyond. The SandWings’ jaws were agape in amazement over their new surroundings as they flew--or at least, the younger ones were amazed. Mirage flew ahead, serious as ever, occasionally exchanging looks with his wife. It reminded Copper of how Dusty and Drift had talked with their eyes--no words, conveying everything in their expressions alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Birds chirped and insects buzzed around the dragons, throwing color across the sharp green of the leaves and the flowers nestled amongst them. Copper realized that she’d forgotten how alive the rainforest was; how loud it was. It was so different from the quiet isolation of the desert, so much more colorful. And the dragons....</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Halt! Who goes there?” Copper jerked and glanced over at the voice, unsurprised to see nothing but thin air. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re friends of Dragonfly,” Fly answered, keeping her tone even. “And I’d think you would remember me by now, Tualang.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, really? That’s you?” The leaves on one of the nearby trees suddenly shimmered into shades of purple and gold to reveal a delicately-proportioned RainWing, who tilted her head at them. “You guys are cool! And I remember you!” Tualang gestured to Copper with a talon, and her scales shifted to a shade of dusty-red that matched Sandstone’s. “That’s cool, that’s cool, that’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>so </span>
  </em>
  <span>cool!” She flashed them a toothy grin, before frowning at Mamba. “Wow, he doesn’t look good. You still know the way, right Fly? I don’t want to fly all the way back to camp just to fly all the way back here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, that will be fine. Thank you.” Fly nodded to Tualang, who smiled and disappeared back into the canopy as the group continued on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soon enough, Copper recognized the sleeping platforms and flower garlands and walkways and open houses of the RainWing village, wound so carefully into the trees that it was nearly invisible if you didn’t know what you were looking for. It was a place so sleepy and colorful and full of light, Copper felt out of place before they even touched down on a large, all-too familiar walkway just outside one of the homes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fly!” A beautiful RainWing stepped out of the home, grinning a gap-toothed smile at the entire group. Her body was a striking cobalt color, and her wings shimmered in shades of iridescent blue and purple--just like a dragonfly, Fly had said of her before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dragonfly.” Fly smiled warmly, stepping in front of the others and nodding to her. “I got your message...and I hope you don’t mind I brought a few extra dragons with me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ooh, I love new dragons! Of course I don’t mind!” Veins of gold rippled along her scales and Dragonfly rushed over, looking at her new guests with a bright smile. “Ooh, he’s so strong!” she said of Sandstone. She looked sympathetically at Mamba, though like Tualang didn’t seem to dwell on it, smiling brightly at Polar instead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s so pretty…” she whispered almost to herself, and her scales soon shifted into shades of silver and pale blue to match his. “Wow...I like that…” She twirled around, grinning widely. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you think?” she asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You look nice, miss,” Polar said with a nervous smile. Fly sighed, but nodded and Copper chuckled; they were both used to the RainWings’ more...spontaneous ways than the others, and it didn’t bother them much anymore. Mirage tried not to look irritated and Mamba seemed downright insulted; Dusty and Roadrunner and Sandstone just looked confused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks!” Dragonfly didn’t seem to notice the expressions of her other guests, motioning for them all to follow her as she started up the walkway. “Come on, come on inside!” She led the others into her hut--it was nothing grand, like all RainWing huts, draped in flowers and one or two sloths--but did it need to be? Copper sure didn’t think so. She found a path of sunlight and collapsed onto the floor there, letting the warm sun drench her in sweet, sweet light. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oooh!” Dragonfly squealed as Copper’s scales lit up in the light. “Beautiful scales, I love them! I always forgot how exquisite you are, Copper. So shiny!” She suddenly yawned, then looked at the walkway again. “It’s almost our sun time, so I’m going to go nap. You guys get settled in, yeah? You can tell me all about everything tonight!” The RainWing flashed them a final smile before she flew up into the canopy, her scales rippling in happy shades of lavender, pink, and gold.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are they always so perky?” Mamba muttered, but he seemed to be hiding a grin under his annoyed expression. He yawned. “‘m tired…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A warm body suddenly collapsed beside Copper, and when she opened an eye she found herself face-to-face with Sandstone, who gave her a little smile. Polar curled up on her other side, the chill of his scales odd against the sun’s warmth, though Copper didn’t mind it one bit. Roadrunner and Dusty joined the heap without much hesitation, and Fly and Mirage curled up next to each other in another corner. Mamba remained where he was on the canvas, and before long the exhausted crew was fast asleep. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. Chapter 29</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Hey guys, look what I finished!” Copper yawned and looked up, glancing over at the little RainWing’s voice. Sunbeam was on her hind talons, holding up a small tapestry for the others to see while splotches of violet fluttered across her scales. “Do...do you guys like it?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Woven into the threads was a small picture of the sun rising above rolling dunes, and when Copper and the others nodded her scales rippled into a light shade of happy pink. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Looks just like home,” Roadrunner remarked, grinning at how Sunbeam almost seemed to burst with color at the compliment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The troop had met the little RainWing, who was only a year or so younger than the younger ones, shortly after moving to their new home in the Rainforest. The sweet, tiny dragon was DragonFly’s only pupil in tapestry making--few RainWings were patient or willing enough to create them, but not Sunbeam. She absolutely adored the craft, and soon made friends with Copper and her group over the weeks she spent with them in Dragonfly’s hut.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At first, the others hadn’t liked her as much, but Sunbeam was the sort of dragon that grew on you over time. She was kind, and funny, and silly, and she loved mimicking the others’ colors with her scales to try and fit in with them. Even Dusty found himself able to smile sometimes, when faced with the little dragon’s exuberance and love of beauty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, it’s really beautiful,” Polar agreed, his cheeks flushing a bright shade of blue when Sunbeam flashed him a bright smile. Sandstone nodded as well, followed by Dusty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re getting good, kid.” Dusty said. Sandstone nodded and glanced at the others, then looked up at the bright sky overhead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s your sun time now, isn’t it?” he asked, tilting his head at Sunbeam.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup!” Sunbeam laughed, letting her scales ripple into their usual colors. It looked a lot like dappled sunlight on leaves, complete with shadows and the occasional “flower.” Copper shook her head; she always found herself amazed by the beauty of the RainWings, even after she’d seen the trick a hundred times she’d gladly see it a hundred times more. There seemed to be no end to the incredible color combinations and patterns that the RainWings could create on their own scales; every time she thought she’d seen everything a new pattern or combination sprung up to amaze her yet again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sunbeam spread her wings and the others followed her to a nice sleeping platform, where they all curled up together in a heap to soak in the sun.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandstone’s troop always accompanied Sunbeam during her sun time now, as despite having such a bright personality their little RainWing friend didn’t have many other friends because of her interests. Though she claimed she didn’t care and the others were missing out, Copper knew better every time she caught the sad look in Sunbeam’s eyes when she was working alone...again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The troop had made it their mission to make sure that Sunbeam was never left alone once they found out about her situation, and to say that she was overjoyed to hear that would’ve been an understatement. Besides, this wasn’t much different from how Copper and the others had spent a lot of afternoons in the Scorpion Den, and she especially welcomed the quiet time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copper settled down on the platform spread her wings out just slightly, letting them soak up the afternoon light. She looked over at Polar who was snoring softly next to Sunbeam, at Dusty and Roadrunner and Sandstone who’d all formed a small circle around Copper; at Sunbeam who somehow looked happy even in her sleep. Copper and her friends owed that sweet little dragon more than she knew; her encouraging nature had helped Polar to come out of his shell and calmed him down when he was nervous; her willingness to be quiet and just hang out, while highly unusual for a RainWing, had convinced even Dusty to smile after all that had happened to him. Sunbeam didn’t mind that he almost never talked; sometimes she filled the quiet with grand stories for her friend, and sometimes she just listened to the quiet with them. Her laughter and love of jokes had made her quick friends with Roadrunner, and her kind personality went well with Sandstone’s quiet and protective nature. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>A lot had happened in the past few months. Some of it was good, some of it terrible. But Copper thought that she finally had the answer to the question she couldn’t answer before. Looking out at her friends, sleeping soundly and safely in the warm sunlight, convinced her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>My name is Copper. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This is my life,</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And I regret nothing.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>These are my friends,</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And I wouldn’t trade them for anything. </span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>There you have it. This took me over a year to write, I think, and I'll be honest - I'm not terribly proud of it. But it's here anyways, so...hope you enjoyed.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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